Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding contract between you and VoiceOfVillage ("we", "us", "the platform"), the operator of the website at https://www.voiceofvillage.com. By creating an account, signing in, or using any service on the site, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the platform.

2. Who can use the platform

• You must be at least 18 years old, or have your parent/guardian's consent.
• You must provide accurate sign-up information and keep it current.
• You are responsible for everything done from your account; protect your sign-in credentials.
• You may use only one account per real-world identity, unless we explicitly grant otherwise.

3. What we offer

VoiceOfVillage is a directory and community platform for every revenue village of India. Features include:

• Village, mandal, district, state, and constituency micropages.
• Posts, comments, photos, and audio contributions from registered villagers.
• Jobs, businesses, fundraisers, events, marketplaces, and government-scheme directories.
• Donation processing (via Razorpay) for verified gram panchayats.

Most features are free. Some optional features (premium listings, verified badges) are paid; those are billed via Razorpay and governed by the additional terms shown at point of purchase.

4. Your content

4.1 You own what you post

You retain all rights, title, and interest in the content you submit (text, photos, audio, video, comments — collectively "Your Content").

4.2 You grant us a licence to publish it

You grant VoiceOfVillage a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for technical purposes like thumbnailing), publish, and distribute Your Content for the purposes of operating the platform and making it visible to other users. This licence ends when you delete the content, with one exception: aggregated and de-identified data derived from your content may be retained for analytics.

4.3 You promise that you have the rights

You confirm that you either own Your Content or have permission to share it on the platform, and that publishing it doesn't violate anyone else's rights or any law.

5. Prohibited uses

You agree NOT to:

• Post unlawful, defamatory, threatening, harassing, or hateful content.
• Post content that promotes violence, terrorism, child exploitation, or hate based on caste, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.
• Impersonate any person or organisation, including elected officials or the platform itself.
• Misrepresent a village's sarpanch, MPP, MLA, or MP.
• Spam other users with unsolicited messages, fake fundraisers, or scams.
• Upload viruses, attempt to break authentication, scrape the platform, or interfere with its operation.
• Use the platform to collect personal data about other users for unrelated purposes.
• Violate any applicable Indian law or the laws of the jurisdiction you're in.

We remove content that violates these rules. Repeat offenders are suspended or banned.

6. Verification & village claims

We offer a verified-resident badge for users who confirm their village through DigiLocker e-KYC. Sarpanchs, MPPs, MLAs, MPs, and registered businesses may apply for an additional "official" badge after manual review. We reserve the right to accept, refuse, or revoke any badge at our sole discretion. False claims to office are grounds for permanent ban and may be reported to local authorities.

7. Payments and donations

Donations to gram panchayats are processed by Razorpay (PCI-DSS Level 1 certified). Receipts (including 80G certificates where applicable) are issued by the receiving panchayat, not by VoiceOfVillage. We charge a service fee disclosed at the time of payment. Refunds for accidental donations are at the panchayat's discretion; for platform service fees, refunds are issued only when there is a technical error on our side, within 7 days.

8. Third-party services

When you sign in via Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Apple, or DigiLocker, you are also bound by those services' terms. When you make a payment via Razorpay, you are bound by Razorpay's terms. We are not responsible for outages, errors, or breaches of those third-party services.

9. Disclaimers

The platform is provided "as is". We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability, the accuracy of user-submitted information (including population, sarpanch names, electoral data — all of which is community-edited), or compatibility with any particular device or browser. We aggregate publicly-available data from government sources (LGD, Census 2011, ECI), but we cannot guarantee that this data is current, complete, or error-free at the moment you view it.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, VoiceOfVillage's aggregate liability for any and all claims arising out of or related to your use of the platform is limited to: (a) the total amount you paid us in the 12 months immediately before the claim arose, or (b) Rs. 5,000 (Indian Rupees five thousand), whichever is greater. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, or data.

11. Indemnity

You agree to defend and indemnify VoiceOfVillage against any third-party claims arising from Your Content, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

12. Termination

You can terminate your account at any time via Dashboard → Settings → Privacy → Delete Account. We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms or applicable law, or if we're required to by court order. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (ownership of content licence already used, liability limits, indemnity, dispute resolution) do survive.

13. Governing law & disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or the platform shall be resolved exclusively by the courts at Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Before going to court, you agree to first contact us at grievance@voiceofvillage.com and attempt to resolve the dispute in good faith for at least 30 days.

14. Changes to these terms

When we make a material change to these Terms, we email registered users at least 30 days before the new Terms take effect. Continuing to use the platform after the effective date is your acceptance of the new Terms. A change log is maintained at /legal/changelog.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at legal@voiceofvillage.com. For grievance redressal under Indian IT Rules and the DPDP Act, contact grievance@voiceofvillage.com.