Introduction The relationship between citizens and the government is reciprocal. The citizens are members of the State. The State recognizes certain rights of the citizens and in turn expects certain duties from them.
The Rights of Individual:
As far as the rights of an individual concerned they can be divided into three civil, political and social classes.
(a) Civil Rights: Civil rights are those rights which are necessary for the freedom/liberty of the individual. They include the right to life and personal liberty,right to freedom of speech, expression and thought,right to own property, right to enter into contract, right to equality before law and equal protection by law. Equality before law means absence of special privileges, equal; protection of laws implies equals should be treated equally and unequals,unequally.
(b) Political Rights: Political rights include the right to vote to form or join a political party. and the right to contest elections.
(c) Social Rights: Social rights include the right to some degree of economic welfare and security and the right to live the life of a civilized being according to standard prevailing in the society.
Duties of an Individual:
(a) To pay taxes: It is the primary duty of the citizen to pay taxes to the government.
(b) To obey laws and rule: The citizen should cooperative with the government and abide by the laws and rules.
(c) In preventing diseases: An individual should help in preventing diseases by immunization and by keeping neighbourhood neat and clean.
(d) To Check the growth of population: An individual should help in control of population. He should have small families to help the government check the population growth.
(e) To Check public property: An individual should protect public property, help in catching and punishing antisocial and anti national elements.
(f) By avoiding violence: Further,the citizens of different castes, religions, languages and regions should solve their problems by understanding and agreement and not by violent means. In this way, a lot of resources, energy and time of the government can be saved for constructive purposes.
