In Binawarsa Hamlet, Sagu Village, Galing Subdistrict, Sambas Regency, a group of women who have rarely been involved in village public activities sat together to draw a map of their own village on paper: the river surrounding the hamlet, roads, rice fields, and the rubber gardens that sustain their daily lives. This was the starting point of a participatory research on living space and livelihood sources through a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) lens, carried out by Gemawan together with the Daun Piawas Women’s Group.
This research is part of the Strengthening the Role of Community Groups for Sustainable Village Livelihoods in West Kalimantan program. In Sambas, Gemawan’s community accompaniment has been ongoing since the organization was founded in 1999, with Galing Subdistrict — which shares a land border with East Malaysia — becoming a key area of focus due to the vulnerability of its peatland and its geopolitical position along the border.
The River as the Village’s Pulse
For the people of Sagu, the river is far more than a waterway. Based on the participatory mapping conducted with the Daun Piawas Group, the river serves as the main transportation route, a place for washing and bathing, and a site for processing garden produce — soaking rubber and pepper before further processing. Yet the research also recorded changes felt by residents over the past decade: river water that used to be drinkable during the dry season is no longer fit for consumption, fish populations have declined, and a mass fish die-off believed to be linked to palm oil plantation waste upstream has occurred.
This shift has gone hand in hand with changes in livelihood. Rubber — a commodity once even sold by residents as far as Lundu, Malaysia — has partly been abandoned in favor of oil palm, as rubber prices continue to weaken. Meanwhile, rice farming remains at a subsistence level, with thin profit margins after accounting for the rising cost of fertilizer and pesticides.
An Unequal Division of Labor
One key finding of the research is the pattern of labor division in farming. From seedling preparation, planting, fertilizing, and harvesting to post-harvest processing, women carry out the largest share of the work — on top of their domestic responsibilities and involvement in social activities such as communal savings groups (arisan) and religious gatherings. Men take on a larger share of physically demanding tasks, such as clearing land and transporting the harvest.
Inequality is also evident in access to assistance. The government’s subsidized fertilizer program, for instance, is only accessible to households registered with the Women Farmers’ Group (KWT) — leaving households outside the group without the same access, including some members of the Daun Piawas Group itself.