Dari Embung ke Kelas: Refleksi Interseksional Feminis tentang Air Bersih, Pendidikan, dan Ketimpangan Gender di NTT

Abstract

This article examines the interconnections between education, clean water access, gender norms, climate vulnerability, and structural inequality through the author’s lived experience and more than twenty-five years of work in development and humanitarian organizations focused on gender equality and children’s rights. Drawing on the Capability Approach, Feminist Political Ecology, intersectionality, and critical perspectives on development inequality, the paper situates personal observations within a broader theoretical framework. It argues that educational injustice cannot be understood in isolation from basic infrastructure and socio ecological conditions. Using comparative analysis of educational indicators—such as school participation and dropout rates, particularly among girls—alongside data on clean water access and drought, the paper identifies a consistent association between children’s access to education and their access to clean water, while showing that this relationship is mediated by gender norms, poverty, geography, and socio-ecological conditions. The paper further argues that these inequalities are embedded in gendered social institutions, including marriage practices and belief, which may shape women’s agency and the value attached to girls’ education.