Citizenship

1. Citizenship refers to one’s membership in a nation with all its fundamental or constitutional rights.
2. In the contemporary world, states provide a collective political identity to their members as well as certain rights such as people calling themselves Indians, Japanese, etc. This is called citizenship.
3. Apart from the relationship between states and their members:
   1. It is about cooperation and harmony among the citizens’ relations. It also includes certain obligations of citizens to one another and even to society. 
   2. They include not just the legal obligations imposed by states but also a moral obligation to participate in, and contribute to, the shared life of the community. 
   3. Citizens are taken as the inheritors and trustees of the cultural heritage of the state and manpower of the nation.

Importance of Citizenship for Stateless:

1. Thousands of people in the world have to live miserably because they are refugees as no state is willing to grant them membership or citizenship.  
2. When people lack the citizenship of any state they are not eligible for guaranteed rights of any state and they have to struggle a lot without identity.
3. For the full membership of a state of their choice is a goal for which they are willing to struggle such as Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.

Full and Equal Memberships:

Need: If jobs, facilities like medical care or education, etc. are limited, the ‘outsiders’ are not given priorities their entry is restricted by the state though India has made such provisions for its resistance:

• 1. India granted its citizens freedom of movement which is of particular importance for workers
  2. Markets have been developed where skilled and even untrained workers are given opportunities                                                  Division between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’:
     1. A demand can be raised to restrict some particular type of work or job for the local people of the state. Some other reasons like language can cause this issue. Without citizenship, nobody could work in the state 
     2. Resistance is sometimes united against the outsiders or people without citizenship and they create violence to restrict them from any opportunity                                                                                                                                                                              Resolving disputes:
     3. In a democracy such disputes are settled by negotiation and discussion in a polite way, this is one of the obligations of citizenship
     4. The right to protest is an aspect of the freedom of expression guaranteed to citizens in India provided protest does not harm the life or property of other people or the State
     5. Citizens are free to try and influence public opinion and government policy by forming groups, holding demonstrations, or by approaching the courts
     6. The court may decide to solve the issue or the government can also be requested to take an action; however, both the processes are slow and take time