Productivity Aspect of Wages in Food for Work Programme

Productivity Aspect of Wages in Food for Work Programme Manoj Kumar Panda THE wages paid in the food for work programme (FWF) have recently raised some controversy. Basu (1981) argues for "as low a wage rate as is passible without running short of labour". He criticises the earlier recommendation of Dandekar and Sathe (1980) to increase the prevailing wage rate on the ground that this would lead to concentration of the benefit of FWP on a lesser number of people. In making this criticism, however, Basu completely ignores the effect of the wage rate on the productivity of the worker.