[Answered] Rights and duties are conceptually linked to one another and there are no rights without duties. Explain and give examples in support of your answer.

India is a constitutional democracy, where the constitution provides for both rights and duties. However, the original constitution did not have provision for duties. It was added to the constitution by the 42nd constitution amendment act under Part IV A. 

Rights are understood as entitlements or claims against the state, which are essential for the holistic development of the individuals. Whereas Duties are moral obligations on individuals for performance of certain actions in the welfare of society and state.  

Rights and duties may seem like two different concepts but they are functionally related. As Mahatma Gandhi in Hind Swaraj observed that “Real rights are a result of the performance of duty”. He held that rights are present in duties in embryonic form, when duties are performed it automatically gives rise to rights. 

The conceptual linkage between rights and duties can be understood by the following examples. 

• The right to clean the environment guaranteed by the constitution under Article 21, can be exercised when people perform their duty to protect and improve the natural environment. 

• The right to equality for women under Article 14, 15 and 16, can be meaningfully exercised when people perform their duty to renounce derogatory practices against women. 
• The right to education of children under Article 21A can only be meaningfully exercised when their parents or guardian perform their duty to provide opportunities for education to their child or ward. 
• Right to freedom of religion under Article 25-28 and Cultural and Educational rights under Article 29 and 30 can be meaningfully exercised when people perform their duty to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities  
• To meaningfully exercise the right to vote, a sense of duty towards voting is needed. Lack of which results in immoral behavior in the electoral process. 

For enjoying rights guaranteed under the constitution a stable social order is needed and duties ensure creation of stable social order. 

Guarantee of rights by the state motivates people to perform their duties. Meaningful exercise of rights requires social recognition of those rights. This social recognition is manifested in the form of performance of duties by society, which enables the exercise of rights.  

This correlation was summed up by Harold Laski, where he had held that rights are claims not free from duties. Hence it can be said that both rights and duties are equally important and interrelated with each other. Exercise of one depends on the other.