<p>The volumetric shrinkage of soil while drying results in the development of internal stresses, leading to various engineering problems such as foundation failures, slope instability, underground pipe and conduit ruptures, crack formations in clay liners, etc. Conventionally, the shrinkage behavior of soil is established either in terms of (i) Soil Shrinkage Curve or (ii) Soil Shrinkage Stress Curve, wherein the volume change and the induced stresses in the soil corresponding to moisture loss are comprehended, respectively. However, in real-time, as volume reduction and stress development transpire in tandem, establishing the stress–strain behavior of the soil during shrinkage would be more emphatic. Under these circumstances, the present study formulates a constitutive model integrating the shrinkage stress and strain relationship for clayey soils, termed herein as the Shrinkage Stress–Strain Curve. From the experimental investigations, it was observed that the Shrinkage Stress–Strain Curve (desiccation test) and the volumetric stress–strain curve (isotropic compression test) are analogues exhibiting hyperbolic relations. Hence, the well-established Selig’s equation, widely employed for determining the tangent bulk modulus of soil under external isotropic loading, has been extended and modified to establish the shrinkage modulus of the clayey soils during desiccation.</p>