Rights and Duty

By: Prem Prasad Sigdel

I have found much debate in these two subjects with children which comes first and second; or they come together; or they don’t coincide. Right is essential for every individual to ensure basic needs of their life; whereas duty is an essential moral character that a person should obey in their life. Rights can be part or transitional and duty is whole process of life. Duty is the permanent factor that we have to follow in each step of life. I find a conflict in understanding with the basic need and moral character of children.

Children are ensured child rights to them for their overall development. For example they should get proper meal, parental love, educational opportunity, respectable behavior and so on. It is believed that they should be given love by the seniors so that they could be changed with the love what the elders have given. They are innocent and the crime what they have done is also rated under Juvenile crime. The children can be forgiven of the crime what they have done it can’t be believed that or they haven’t done it deliberately. Their activities have been taken as mistake.

On the other hand, the duty which the children have to follow is also another part of their life. They should respect their elders; they should obey their parents and family members; they should have followed the rules and regulations in their life; they should obey their teachers; and they shouldn’t involve in illegal activities. Thus duty has its value related to the moral aspects of their life which guides their life in a system and helps to make their life successful. The rights without duty can be mistaken.

On the other hand, right is the aspect related to the law, rules and regulations. The elders would love the juniors since the beginning of the human history. When humans have been civilized they expressed their love to juniors. Not only humans animals have also love their juniors. So the right which is the creation of the 20^th century has its short or transitory history. Unlike the rights, duty has broader aspect which can be lesson throughout the life.

I am a teacher and I have heard from the children that they have child right so that they shouldn’t be punished. Or they have the right to do the thing what they like. Or they should be let free to have their own decision. I always suggest them the duty what they should have followed first and then to talk about rights. Unless they don’t follow the duty they don’t have the right for bargaining.

For example, some students want to play in the ground. It disturbs others and it is the teachers’ duty to stop playing. The students have questioned that it is their right. Then I have been forced to think about the incident. I think I have violated the rights of the children when they have raised their voice. On the other hand, I have been following the duty that others shouldn’t be affected by their activities. So the question of duty and rights make me think whether I have violated their rights or not. Or, have I done better decision protecting others’ rights?

As I have to rate, I put duty first instead of rights. The rights have been created by the law whereas the duty has been created by the moral aspect of human life. If we don’t follow duty at prior the concept of rights is useless. The students should have also followed the same so that they can use their right in a limited sense.

Nothing is unlimited in this world as the children have argued; so the right what the students have argued is useless unless they don’t follow their duty first. They should be given the lesson what their responsibility is. If they don’t be responsible first they can’t realize their mistake. If we can’t make them realize their responsibility in the name of rights only, they will be out of track. They can’t learn the ethics in their life so their life is always in shadow.

The conflict of rights and duty is overshadowed by rights only these days. People would seek their right ignoring their duty. The concept should have been changed to create system in the society. Rather than the rules and regulations they should have been guided with ethics which is the outcome of their duty. There can a debatable, but the thing which is right is right all the time. We can’t ensure the child rights for the children unless we can’t make them dutiful.