Vidur Foundation · Knowledge Pillar
Know Your Rights अपने अधिकार जानें
Most people never read the Constitution or the laws that shape their daily lives — so they never fully claim the rights those laws guarantee them. Here we explain the Constitution of India, your fundamental rights, and the everyday laws that protect you — in clear, plain language and real depth, with concrete steps to actually use them. Knowing your rights is the first and strongest protection against injustice.
Know Your Rights
11 Articles
Senior Citizen Rights in India: Maintenance Law, Financial Protection, Government Schemes, and How to Get Help
India has 140 million senior citizens (above 60), a number that will double to 300 million by 2050. They hold significant legal rights that most are not aware of: the right to be maintained (financially supported) by children and heirs under law, the right to revoke property gifts to children who neglect them, protection against financial abuse and fraud, priority in government services, and access to dozens of central and state schemes. This guide covers the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, how to file a maintenance complaint, protections against financial elder abuse, and key government schemes with exact portals and helpline numbers.
Land and Property Rights in India: How to Check Your Land Records, Stop Illegal Encroachment, and Protect What Is Yours
Land disputes are the single largest source of civil litigation in India, accounting for over 66% of all civil cases in subordinate courts. Millions of farmers and rural families lose or risk losing land through fraudulent mutations, boundary encroachments, illegal sales by relatives, and failure to update inherited land records. This guide explains how to check your land records online for free, how the mutation (dakhil kharij) process works, what to do if your land has been encroached upon, how to check for illegal transactions in your name, and your rights under the new land digitisation programmes. All steps are free and most can be done from a phone.
Your Rights as a Worker in India: Minimum Wage, PF, ESIC, Maternity Leave, and How to File a Labour Complaint
Millions of Indian workers are paid below minimum wage, denied their provident fund contributions, not registered under ESIC, and have no idea what their legal rights are. This guide explains every major right Indian workers have — minimum wage, EPF, ESIC, maternity benefits, working hours, bonus, gratuity — and gives the exact steps to file a complaint when any right is violated.
You Have a Right to a Free Lawyer in India: The Complete Guide to Legal Aid
The Constitution of India guarantees every person the right to a lawyer — and if you cannot afford one, the government must provide one for free. This right is real, widely available, and almost nobody uses it because nobody has explained it clearly. This guide explains who qualifies for free legal aid, how to get it, what NALSA and SLSA do, and how Lok Adalats can resolve disputes without going to court.
Cyber Crime & Online Fraud: Your Rights and Exactly How to Report It (and Get Your Money Back)
If money is stolen from your account by a scammer, the single most important thing to know is that you may be able to get it back — but only if you act within the 'golden hour.' Call 1930. This is the complete, up-to-date, plain-language guide to your rights against cyber crime and online fraud in India: the golden-hour rule, how to report on 1930 and cybercrime.gov.in, the RBI rule that can make your liability zero, the dangerous 'digital arrest' scam, and how to protect yourself.
Consumer Rights in India: How to Complain and Get Your Money Back for Defective Goods or Bad Service
When a product is defective, a service is terrible, a shop overcharges you, or an online order goes wrong, most people just grumble and give up — believing a lone customer can't fight a company. That belief is wrong. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 gives you strong, enforceable rights and a fast, cheap way to claim a refund, replacement, or compensation. This is the complete, plain-language guide: your six consumer rights, the National Consumer Helpline (1915), how to file online on e-Daakhil, the consumer commissions, and the CCPA.
Women's Legal Rights in India: The Complete Plain-Language Guide to the Laws That Protect You
Indian law gives women a powerful set of specific rights and protections — against domestic violence, sexual harassment at work, dowry, and unequal inheritance — plus free legal aid for every woman regardless of income. But these rights only protect those who know they exist. This is the complete, up-to-date, plain-language guide: domestic violence law, the POSH Act and SHe-Box, the new BNS 2023 provisions, marriage, maintenance and divorce, equal inheritance, maternity rights, and exactly how and where to get help.
RTI: How to Use the Right to Information to Get Answers from Any Government Office
The Right to Information Act gives every Indian citizen a startling power: for just ₹10, you can compel almost any government office to answer your questions in 30 days — why your pension is stuck, where the money for a local road went, why your application was rejected. This is the complete, step-by-step, plain-language guide to filing an RTI, using the online portal, the appeal ladder if they refuse, the penalty officers face for stonewalling, and the exemptions (including the important 2023 change to the law).
The Constitution of India, Explained for Every Citizen: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Protects You
The Constitution of India is the supreme rulebook of the country — the one document that even the government, the police, and Parliament must obey. Yet most citizens have never had it explained plainly. This is the complete, in-depth, plain-language guide: what a constitution actually is, how ours was made, the Preamble explained, Fundamental Rights vs Directive Principles, your Fundamental Duties, the three pillars of government, federalism, and how a 'living document' is amended — without destroying its basic structure.
Your Rights If You're Arrested or Stopped by the Police: A Plain-Language Guide to India's New Criminal Law (BNSS 2024)
If the police ever arrest you, stop you, or refuse to file your complaint, the law gives you specific, powerful rights — and on 1 July 2024 that law changed completely, when the new Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the old CrPC. This is the complete, up-to-date, plain-language guide: whether the police can even arrest you, your rights the moment of arrest (including the new written-grounds rule), the 24-hour rule, special protections for women, how to force an FIR (Zero FIR and e-FIR), and free legal aid.
Your Fundamental Rights: The Complete Plain-Language Guide to What the Constitution of India Guarantees You
The Constitution of India gives every one of us a set of powers that no government, police officer, employer, or landlord can lawfully take away — the Fundamental Rights. But most people have never had them explained clearly, so they never fully use them. This is the complete, plain-language guide to all six Fundamental Rights (Articles 12–35): what each one actually means, real examples, the limits, and exactly how to enforce your rights when they are violated.
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