Listener Agreement

This agreement is between XYRAVON STUDIOS LLP, which operates Neeli, and you, as a listener on Neeli. It applies in addition to our Terms and Conditions, Community Guidelines, Child Safety Standards and Privacy Policy, each of which is incorporated into this agreement by reference.

You accept this agreement when you submit a listener application.

1. Independent contractor

You engage with Neeli as an independent contractor. You are not an employee, worker, partner, agent or joint venturer of Neeli.

Accordingly:

• No employment relationship is created by this agreement.
• You are not entitled to provident fund, ESI, gratuity, paid leave, bonus, insurance or any other employment benefit.
• There are no minimum hours, no rosters and no guaranteed volume of calls.
• There is no guaranteed level of earnings.
• You decide when you are available and when you are not.
• You are responsible for your own equipment, internet connection, workspace and taxes.

Nothing in this agreement authorises you to bind Neeli, to represent Neeli to third parties, or to hold yourself out as speaking on Neeli's behalf.

2. Eligibility

To be a listener you must:

• be 18 years of age or older;
• be a resident of India;
• hold a valid government-issued photo identity document, which is how we verify identity and age;
• hold a bank account in your own name; and
• not have been previously removed from Neeli.

Payouts are made only to a bank account in the same name as the verified identity. We do not pay into third-party accounts.

3. Verification and your documents

Before you can take calls or be paid, you must complete verification. We collect:

• your full name, nickname, date of birth and phone number;
• the languages you speak, so that we can match you with users who want to talk in them;
• a government-issued photo identity document, to verify your identity and that you are 18 or over. Any valid one is accepted — you choose which to give us;
• a selfie photograph, to confirm that the person applying is the person in the document;
• your bank account holder name, account number and IFSC, for payouts.

You may also give us your PAN. That one is optional — it is not a condition of becoming a listener, and we will not hold up your application over it. It affects only how tax is deducted from what you earn, which section 6 explains in full.

Your languages appear on your listener profile. Nothing else in that list does.

How the rest is handled:

• Your identity documents, your selfie and your bank details are sensitive personal data. They are stored with restricted access, are never shown to users, and are never displayed back inside the app.
• Your identity document is used to verify your identity and your age, and for nothing else. It is never shown to users or to other listeners, it is never used as your account identifier, and it is not used for advertising, profiling or matching.
• If the document you choose to give us is an Aadhaar, we mask it: only the last four digits are retained. We do not store the full Aadhaar number. You are never obliged to use an Aadhaar — any other valid photo identity document is accepted in its place.
• They are used only for verification, payouts, fraud prevention and tax compliance.
• They are retained for the duration of your engagement plus the statutory retention period that applies afterwards. Payment records are retained for 8 years under company and tax law.
• We may refuse an application, or revoke an approved listener account, if verification fails, if the documents appear altered, or if the details do not match.

You may withdraw an application before approval and ask us to delete the documents submitted with it — see Account and Data Deletion.

4. What you agree to do

• Take calls only when you can give them your full attention, from a place where you can speak freely and privately.
• Be the person your profile represents — accurate photograph, accurate languages, accurate bio.
• Listen. Let the user finish. Do not lecture, do not moralise, and do not make the conversation about you.
• Follow the Community Guidelines in full.

5. What you must never do

• Never present yourself as a professional. You are not a therapist, counsellor, psychologist, psychiatrist or doctor. Do not diagnose, do not name conditions, do not advise on medication, and do not give medical, legal or financial advice.
• Never introduce or accept sexual content. End the call and report it.
• Never ask a user for money, accept money outside the app, or share payment details with a user.
• Never share or request contact details, or attempt to move a conversation off Neeli.
• Never record, screenshot or redistribute a call, or repeat what a user told you to anyone.
• Never farm minutes. Do not go idle, stay silent, leave a call running, or stretch a conversation artificially. This is treated as fraud and can result in forfeiture of earnings.
• Never take a call from anyone you believe to be under 18. End it and report it immediately.

6. Earnings, payouts and tax

Earnings. You earn for the time you spend on connected calls, at the per-minute rate applicable to your profile and the call type. Rates, any incentives, and how minutes are measured are shown in the listener app. Time is measured from call connection to call end.

Disputed and dropped calls. Where a call is refunded to a user because of a fault on our side, the corresponding earning is unaffected. Where a call is reversed because of your conduct — inattention, a guidelines breach, or a substantiated report — the earning may be withheld.

Payouts.

• Payouts are made to the verified bank account in your name.
• A minimum payout threshold and a payout cycle apply, as shown in the listener app.
• A holding period may apply before earnings become payable, so that fraud, chargeback and abuse checks can complete.
• Failed payouts caused by incorrect bank details are your responsibility to correct; we will retry once details are fixed.
• We may withhold a payout where we reasonably suspect fraud, a chargeback, a serious guidelines breach, or where a legal obligation requires it. We will tell you why.

Tax.

• You are responsible for your own income tax, and for any GST obligations that arise if your turnover crosses the registration threshold.
• Tax is deducted at source (TDS) on your earnings where the Income-tax Act, 1961 requires it. Deducted amounts are reflected in your Form 26AS and, where applicable, a TDS certificate.
• Giving us your PAN is optional. It is not a condition of being a listener, and nothing about your account depends on it. It changes two things, both of which affect you rather than us:
  • Without a PAN, tax is still deducted — at the higher rate required by section 206AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961, rather than the ordinary rate.
  • Without a PAN, the tax we deduct cannot be credited to you properly, so it will not appear against your name in Form 26AS and you will not be able to claim it back when you file your return. This is the part people are usually surprised by, and it is the real reason to give us one.
• A PAN that has become inoperative — most commonly because it has not been linked to Aadhaar — is treated as no PAN at all, with the same two consequences. If you give us a PAN, keep it operative.
• Neeli does not provide tax advice. Please consult a chartered accountant about your own position.

7. Confidentiality

Everything a user tells you on a call is confidential. You must not repeat it, discuss it with other listeners, write about it, post it, or use it for any purpose.

The only exception is a safety escalation: where there is a credible risk to someone's life or safety, or where the law requires disclosure, you must report it to Neeli's safety team at contact@neeliapp.com. Never promise a user a confidentiality that would require you to stay silent while they are in danger.

This obligation survives the end of this agreement.

8. If a user is in crisis

If a user tells you they are thinking about suicide or self-harm, or discloses abuse:

1. Stay on the call. Do not hang up and do not panic.
2. Tell them you are glad they told you. Do not minimise it and do not argue with them about it.
3. Share the helplines: Tele-MANAS 14416, KIRAN 1800-599-0019, emergency 112.
4. Encourage immediate contact with one of those services, or with someone physically near them.
5. Do not attempt to counsel or treat them. You are not trained for it, and attempting it can cause harm.
6. Report the call to contact@neeliapp.com afterwards so the safety team can follow up.

9. Your profile and content licence

You grant Neeli a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display your nickname, profile photograph, bio, languages and rate on the Neeli platform, and to use them in the app's listener listings, for as long as your account is active.

You confirm that the photograph is of you and that you have the right to use it.

10. Exclusivity

This agreement is not exclusive. You may work elsewhere, including on other platforms.

You may not, however, use Neeli to recruit users to another platform, to your own private services, or to any off-platform arrangement.

11. Suspension and termination

By you. You may stop taking calls at any time, and may end this agreement by deleting your listener account. Request and complete any pending payout before deleting, because we cannot verify payout details after deletion.

By us. We may suspend or terminate your listener account, with or without notice, for a breach of this agreement or the Community Guidelines, for suspected fraud, for a substantiated safety report, or where required by law.

Effect of termination.

• Earnings validly accrued and not in dispute remain payable, subject to the payout process.
• Earnings connected to fraud, minute-farming, or a serious guidelines breach may be forfeited.
• Confidentiality, indemnity, limitation of liability and dispute-resolution provisions survive.

12. Liability and indemnity

Neeli is not liable to you for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of earnings resulting from service downtime, changes to rates, or a decision to suspend or terminate your account in accordance with this agreement. Our total liability to you is limited to the earnings validly accrued and unpaid at the time of the claim.

You indemnify Neeli against any claim, loss or expense arising from your breach of this agreement, your conduct on a call, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

13. Governing law and disputes

This agreement is governed by the laws of India. Disputes not resolved through our grievance process within 30 days shall be referred to arbitration by a sole arbitrator under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, seated at Kozhikode, conducted in English. Subject to that, the courts at Kozhikode, Kerala have exclusive jurisdiction.

14. Changes

We may update this agreement. Material changes will be notified in the listener app and by email before they take effect. Continuing to take calls after the effective date means you accept the updated agreement.

Contact

Listener support and payouts: contact@neeliapp.com · Safety escalations: contact@neeliapp.com · Grievance Officer: contact@neeliapp.com · Contact us