Your data, looked after

We collect only what we need to receipt your gift, keep volunteers and children safe, and reply to you. We never sell your data. We never show a child's name, and children's faces appear only with a guardian's consent. You can ask us to show, correct or delete your data at any time.

This policy explains how Mitra Mela (“Mitra Mela”, “we”) handles personal data on this website and in our donation and volunteering programmes. It is written for India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”) and its rules. Mitra Mela is the “data fiduciary” for the data described here.

If you donate

• Name, email and mobile number, to send your receipt and answer questions about your gift.
• PAN, only if you want an 80G tax receipt. The law requires it for your certificate and for our report to the tax department.
• Address (or at least your city), because tax receipts and our filings need it.
• Citizenship declaration, and your Indian passport number if you are an NRI, because we can only accept gifts from Indian citizens until we are registered under FCRA.
• Gift details: amount, date, campaign, payment reference, whether it is monthly, and any tribute name you add.

We never see or store your card number, UPI PIN or net-banking password. Those go directly to the payment gateway.

If you volunteer

• Identity and contact details: name, date of birth, email, phone, city, address and an emergency contact.
• The type of ID you showed us and its last 4 digits only. We do not keep full Aadhaar, passport or other ID numbers.
• Mission details: where you volunteer, the organisation's contact person, your dates, skills and languages.
• Daily photos and notes you upload during your mission.
• Your signature, drawn on screen when you accept the volunteer agreement.

If you write to us or browse the site

• What you type into the contact form: name, email, optional phone, topic and message.
• Basic technical logs kept by our hosting provider (IP address, browser, pages requested) to keep the site secure and working.
• Your language choice, saved in your own browser so the site remembers it. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

• To process your gift, issue your receipt and, if you asked, your 80G certificate (Form 114, formerly Form 10BE, issued after the trust files its annual donation statement).
• To meet our legal duties as a registered trust: tax filings, audits, and the rules on who may donate.
• To verify volunteers before they work with children, women and families, and to keep everyone safe.
• To show a volunteer's public profile (first name and initial, mission, days completed and approved photos) once they are approved. You can ask us to hide it.
• To show the donor wall (first name and city), unless you choose “Give anonymously”.
• To issue and verify certificates for donors and volunteers.
• To reply to your messages, and, only if you agree, to send you updates about campaigns you supported.

We use a small number of trusted service providers (“data processors”). They may use your data only to provide their service to us, under contract.

We also share data where the law requires it, for example donation details with the Income Tax Department, or information with the police or other authorities when we must report unlawful content or protect someone from harm. We do not sell or rent personal data to anyone.

Some providers may store data on servers outside India. Where they do, we choose providers that protect it to the standard Indian law requires.

This website is meant for adults. If you are under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to donate, apply or write to us with you.

Under the DPDP Act we need verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian before we process a child's personal data, and we do not track children or show them advertising.

The children in our programmes are never named on this website. Faces of children are shown only with guardian consent. Volunteers must not upload photos in which a child's face can be identified unless a guardian has agreed.

All uploads are reviewed. Inappropriate or unlawful content will be removed, and the volunteer's access may be suspended or terminated. Where the law requires, we will report content to the appropriate authorities.

• Donation records and receipts: kept for as long as tax law requires us to keep them, then deleted.
• Approved volunteers: kept while you volunteer with us and for as long as we need to verify your certificate or the law requires, then deleted or anonymised.
• Rejected volunteer applications: removed from the live system after 48 hours, and kept in a locked archive only for as long as the law requires.
• Contact form messages: kept while we resolve your question and for a reasonable time afterwards in case you follow up, then deleted.
• Photos removed by moderation: taken off the site immediately; kept in a locked archive only where we must preserve them for the authorities.

• All traffic to this site is encrypted (HTTPS).
• Only the trust members who need a record can see it, and access is logged.
• We keep only the last 4 digits of volunteer ID documents, and never store card or bank login details.
• If a breach affects your data, we will tell you and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires.

Under the DPDP Act 2023 you can:

• Access: ask for a summary of the personal data we hold about you and who we have shared it with.
• Correct and update: ask us to fix data that is wrong or incomplete.
• Erase: ask us to delete your data. We will, except where the law requires us to keep it (for example, donation records for tax).
• Withdraw consent at any time, for example to stop campaign updates or hide your volunteer profile. This does not affect anything done before.
• Grievance redressal: complain to us and get a response. If you are not satisfied, you can then approach the Data Protection Board of India.
• Nominate someone to exercise these rights for you if you die or become unable to.

Email mitramelaglobal@gmail.com with the subject “Privacy request”, or use the contact form. Tell us what you would like us to do, and include your receipt or reference number if you have one. We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act.

Grievance Officer: Alka Mishra, Executive Director
Registered office: J-24, Flat 1, Dilshad Colony, Jhilmil, East Delhi, New Delhi 110095

We acknowledge requests promptly and resolve them within the time the DPDP rules allow.

If we change how we use personal data, we will update this page first and, for important changes, tell donors and volunteers by email.