India, July 5 -- Labour unrest in India continues to be a defining feature of its industrial economy, but its nature has changed significantly over the past decade. Unlike in past conflicts that saw widespread and nationwide shutdowns of industries, recent trends have been towards the decline of intensity of conflict, reduced size of strikes, and fragmented strikes, largely due to informalisation of labor markets and wage constraints. The other end of the spectrum says the law surrounding strikes has not deviated from the interpretation of the constitution and jurisprudence from the Supreme Court, where it is held that although labour rights are safeguarded, strikes are not sacrosanct.

The statistics released by the Labour Bureau of the ...