What is the Relationship between Rights and Duties?

Rights and duties are two phases of the same thing. Rights are considered to be essential for the expansion of human personality. They offer to the individual a sufficient scope for free action and thus prepare ground for self-development.

Although rights arc of great significance in a democratic stale yet they become meaningless in the absence of duties. Rights involve obligations as well.

An individual has rights so that he may make his contribution to the social good. One has no right to act unsocially, man’s rights imply his claims on society and duties indicate the claim of society on the individual. This means that an individual owes to the society certain duties as he obtains rights.

According to Prof. Laski there is a four-fold connection between rights and duties.

1. My Right implies Your Duty:

Every right of an individual involves a corresponding duty of others. For example, my right to life implies that others should give protection and security to my life.

My right to move about freely implies a corresponding duty resting on others that they should not interfere with my free movement.

2. My Rights imply My Duty to admit a similar Right of others:

The conditions of life which I need for myself arc also needed by others. This indicates that every right is a duty in itself. If an individual exercises a right, he must bear in mind that the same right belongs to others as well.

If I have the right to freedom of speech, it is my duty to see that I may not be a hindrance in the free exercise of this right by others.

3.I should exercise My Right to promote Social Good:

A person He guarantees the rights to the majority in the society to remove the should not abuse the right given to him by the State.

For example, if he uses the right to freedom of speech for spreading communal bitterness or society cannot deprive man of these rights; these are inherent and to preach violence and anarchy, it becomes an act counter to the social alienable rights, good. The state will then be justified in depriving the person of his right if he has abused it.

4. Since the State guarantees and maintains My Rights, I have the Duty to support the State:

The state is the agency for social good and it is the duty of an individual to perform ones duties honestly.

The above-mentioned relations between rights and duties, there for clearly prove that rights and duties go hand in hand. A healthy civic li] is impossible without the co-existence of rights and duties. Rights without duties have no meaning and duties without rights have no sense.