FAQ

It is a people’s collective: a body of citizens, not a body of paperwork. It is not a company, society or any such formal body and it does not need to be one to do its work. Like many of India’s people’s movements, it runs on trust, service, openness and discipline. The full picture is in our charter.

Nothing, today and always. The collective never touches money: no fees, no donations, no bank account. No one is ever authorised to collect money in its name and anyone doing so does not speak for us. People give time, skill and voice instead.

Any Indian citizen of 18 years or above, under their real name as it appears on their voter ID. There is no filter of profession, education, language or region and each person joins only once.

The voter ID is the simplest sign of the two things we need: a real, government recorded name and strong evidence of citizenship. A volunteer verifies your name and citizenship with your voter ID when you join. That is all it is used for.

The collective is above party politics by its founding principles. It speaks on digital issues, never for or against any party or candidate and its letterhead can never be used for anything party political. Digital Citizens are fully free in their personal politics outside the collective’s spaces.

Everything is a circle: small groups with a clear purpose and decisions by consensus. No one is voted into anything and no responsibility has a fixed length; responsibilities are held as seva, given by invitation and passed on voluntarily. The National Circle coordinates and publishes its meeting notes in a public minutes log on the Openness page. The circles page shows the whole structure.

A state circle forms when a state has 25 or more Digital Citizens and two willing co-coordinators; a city circle at 10 or more within a state circle. And any five Digital Citizens with a shared purpose may propose a new working circle, on any theme the work needs. Join first, then raise your hand; the Outreach circle helps new circles take root.

They do not speak for us. No one is ever authorised to collect money in the collective’s name, for any reason. Please do not pay and tell us through the complaints contact on the Openness page. If money was taken, the fraud playbook on the Playbooks page shows the first steps.

Digital Citizens can write civic letters on digital issues on the collective’s letterhead: grievance escalations, representations, follow ups. Every draft is checked by three randomly picked reviewers against the letterhead guidelines, and the writer signs in their own name. Letters that speak for the whole collective need more approvals and are published in full on the Openness page. The letterhead is never used for commercial matters, personal disputes, party politics or legal notices.

Write to the complaints contact on the Openness page. Every complaint gets a reply within seven days and anything under complaint may be taken down at once while it is looked at. Mistakes, when we make them, are corrected openly.