Hey there, let me behensplain this to you. Migrant labour often share rooms and if even one or two go away the third or fourth cannot afford to pay monthly rent especially if they’re not getting daily wage employment. Second, their lack of wages means they cannot buy provisions.
So they’re not irrational and irresponsible. They’re trying to make a decision based on the information set that is available to them. They can’t access the govt and they don’t know if they will be taken care of in a city. If they step out they may be beaten by cops.
They also fear getting sick with this disease. They know they can’t access hospitals as readily as the rich. By moving out they’re trying to preserve themselves. You may not like it from your elite vantage point, but that’s their decision.
Certainly the worrry is that they will carry the disease deeper into rural areas, but that’s precisely why there’s something called a government. They should have been able to foresee this situation and screened anyone trying to get home and facilitated their return. They didn’t.
Really right now it’s a matter of survival and they would rather take their chances back home where they can at least try to live off the land and work as farm labour. There’s nothing for them in a city if a city is shut down, there is no social support structure.
And it’s a bit rich to say the gravity of the situation hasn’t dawned on them, when it dawned rather late for the entire Indian administration. For three weeks all the kept flagging was flights to rescue NRIs and bragging about one quarantine centre at Manesar.
Also you must be familiar with cyclical labour patterns in India or perhaps I can send you a copy of Footloose Labour.
