Beyond formal spaces: women’s participation in tuberculosis control in rural Indonesia

Research on tuberculosis (TB) has largely overlooked women’s contributions beyond their roles as policy implementers. In this context, this study explores how women participate not only in supporting TB program implementation but also in creating political linkages to secure village-level resources essential for sustaining TB control efforts through both formal and informal channels. As TB is not merely an epidemiological concern but a societal issue – whereby the infection of one community member requires collective action – ensuring that villages allocate adequate support for affected individuals is crucial. Furthermore, since TB is also a gendered problem, with women impacted both directly and indirectly, their involvement in TB control becomes strategic. Drawing on observations and in-depth interviews from case studies in Javanese villages, this paper demonstrates how rural women activists participate in TB control and strive to influence policy even beyond formal spaces to be valuable lessons for rural communities across the Global South.