Responsibility refers to a duty to control something or someone. It is another word for accountability. It is such an all-encompassing word that no one can claim to be free of any kind of responsibility. Everyone is accountable to someone, for someone or for something. Every person has several responsibility circles around him/her. In every relationship, the concept of responsibility is inherently built. This includes the relationship with family, state, pets, and the public in general.
The father is responsible for his household. He has to carry out his responsibility towards his wife and his children. He has to provide them with clothes to be dressed in, food to consume and shelter to live in. He has the responsibility of sending his children to school to seek education. How will he manage all this? He has to have a job. The job is another circle of responsibility. He is answerable to his boss and his colleagues. He is responsible for the efficiency and success of the position he works in the organization. If he is running his company, then he has a responsibility towards his employees. He has to make sure that they work under the optimum working conditions and are paid their salaries on time. Moreover, the father is also responsible for his parents, if alive. He has to make sure that the parents’ medical bills are being properly footed and that, his parents are receiving appropriate care and attention. He has to provide them financial support if the parents do not have any other source of income. Similarly, the father is also responsible to his wife’s parents. They have given their daughter in marriage and now, the father has to fulfill his responsibility towards them regarding the promise to keep their daughter healthy and happy. Hence, a single person operates between several circles of responsibility.
The student is responsible for his grades at school. He has been provided with the means to acquire education. Now, it is his responsibility towards his parents to make the most of their financial and moral support by working hard. It is his responsibility towards his teacher to retain all that is taught to him and use that knowledge to progress. He has to justify his teacher’s hard work spent on him by achieving the best grades in the present and the future. If he achieves the highest grades in the class, it is his responsibility to guide his juniors if they come to seek his help. There is no code of conduct that describes these responsibilities in black and white. Rather, they are some natural laws that govern the relationships between individuals.
A civilian has myriad responsibilities towards the state and to the general public. It is every civilian’s responsibility to help to keep the roads clean by refusing to throw any wrappers on the road. A smoker has to portray his responsibility towards others well-being by smoking in smoking zones only. A witness to a crime is responsible to the public at large to appear as a witness at the court so that the criminal is justice. It is every person’s responsibility to report any incidence of corruption or bribery witnessed so that the society is cleansed of all such evils.
Hence, every person stands in the middle of several circles of responsibilities. In order to be called responsible, one has to fulfill all his duties in accordance with every role that he plays in his life.
