The Influence of Non-Economic Domain on the Economic Domain of Empowerment: A Study on Neural Networks of Women Self-Help Groups

Abstract

The paper aims to understand the effect of non- economic domains of empowerment on the economic empowerment of women after joining the self-help groups. Most of the studies focused on analysing the level of empowerment in various domains but there is relatively paucity of studies of SHGs showing the effect of non-economic domains in respect of influencing the economic domain of empowerment in the Indian context. The present study contributes to fill the gap in the literature. The paper used data of 200 women from South block of Golaghat district, Assam to fulfil the objectives of the paper. The data were analysed in two stages: testing the hypothesis through Wilcoxon signed rank test followed by Artificial Neural Networks. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the primary benefit of the establishment of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) is the empowerment of women, who are significantly impacted by psychological, educational, political, and social spheres of empowerment which holistically impacts the economic empowerment following their participation in the Self-Help Groups.