The British enacted labour laws to contain the unrest and thwart worker mobilisation that could
disrupt their ambitious trade plans in the occupied country. While independence for India was
inevitable the crown began to implement reasonable laws such as Factories Act, Worker
Compensation Act etc. Post-Independence, India enacted laws from a socialistic perspective and the
courts laid emphasis on delivery of social justice. With the opening up of markets in 1991 and with the
advent of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation of enterprise the labour laws and its
interpretation went through subtle changes to support trade and commerce. Successive governments
in India paid less focus on labour reforms and hence bulk of the laws are out dated, irrelevant or
rendered ineffective. With the sudden impact of Covid-19, business impact, work stoppage and
reverse migration of labour put all major labour laws on the back burner by the government in order
to kick start the economy. Labour in India suffers owing to poor implementation of laws, reforms, low
wages and poor working conditions and we are going back to an era of labour neglect. This research
effort intends to highlight the evolution of labour laws in India and its current state in a developing
economy.