Rights and Duties

Rights and Duties

Context: PM speech on rights and duties

Concepts:

Relationship between rights and duties

• Rights and duties are the two sides of the same coin. For every right, there is a corresponding duty. Rights flow only from duties well performed. Duty is an inalienable part of right. What is duty for one is another person’s right and respect human life and not to injure another person. If everyone performs his/her duty, everybody’s rights would be automatically protected.
• The universal declaration of human rights UDHR (Adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948) declares in clause (1) of Article 29: “Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.”

In return for every right, the society expects the citizens to do certain things which are collectively known as duties. Some such important duties have been incorporated in the Indian Constitution also. The original Constitution enforced on 26th January, 1950 did not mention anything about the duties of the citizen. It was expected that the citizens of free India would perform their duties willingly. But things did not go as expected. Therefore, ten Fundamental Duties were added in Part-IVA of the Constitution under Article 51-A in the year 1976 through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment. Swaran Singh Committee had recommended for their inclusion. The list of duties is not exhaustive as it does not cover other important duties like casting vote, paying taxes, family planning and so on. In fact, duty to pay taxes was recommended by the Swaran Singh Committee.

However, whereas Fundamental Rights are justiciable, the Fundamental Duties are non-justiciable. It means that the violation of fundamental duties, i.e. the non-performance of these duties by citizens is not punishable

Here are the fundamental duties of citizens as enshrined in the Constitution of India:

(a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem;

(b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;

(c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India;

(d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;

(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic, and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;

(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;

g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures;

(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform;

(i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;

(j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement;

(k) who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.