Clinical Safety & Scope of Service
This Statement defines what Nirvaan, operated by Caresoft Systems Private Limited, is and is not. It forms part of the Terms of Use and Practitioner Terms, and prevails over any marketing material, article or verbal statement on any question of scope or clinical safety.
NIRVAAN IS NOT FOR EMERGENCIES.
If you are in danger, seriously unwell, or thinking about harming yourself, do not use this platform. Call 112 or go to your nearest hospital emergency department now.
For mental health support, the national Tele-MANAS helpline is 14416, available 24×7 in multiple languages.
- What Nirvaan is
- The marketplace model
- What Nirvaan is not for
- Emergencies and crisis
- Telemedicine rules
- What may and may not be prescribed
- No physical examination
- Practitioner verification
- Self-assessment tools
- Educational content
- Age — 18 and over only
- Safeguarding
- STI and partner notification
- Anonymity and its limits
- The product store
- Continuity of care
- Reporting a safety concern
- Regulatory position
- Changes
1. What Nirvaan is
Nirvaan is a platform that connects adults seeking help with sexual health to independent registered practitioners who consult remotely, by chat, voice or video, charged by the minute from a wallet.
It also provides free educational content and self-assessment tools, and — where a valid prescription exists — a store for related products.
Why the platform exists. Sexual health is a subject many people in India cannot raise with a doctor they might meet again socially. Nirvaan is designed so a person can ask a real, qualified practitioner an honest question without giving their name — and the anonymity features are not a marketing gimmick, they are the point.
2. The marketplace model
Caresoft does not practise medicine. Practitioners on Nirvaan are independent professionals, not our employees.
The consultation is between the patient and the practitioner. Caresoft provides the platform, the payment mechanism and the record — nothing clinical.
| Who | Responsible for |
|---|---|
| Practitioner | All clinical judgement — assessment, advice, diagnosis where made, prescription, referral, and deciding the consultation is unsuitable for this medium |
| Caresoft | The platform, verification checks, payment and wallet, masking, records, moderation and safety processes |
| Patient | Accurate information, honest history, and acting on advice appropriately |
Caresoft does not select which practitioner treats you, does not review or approve clinical advice, does not intervene in a consultation, and does not overrule a practitioner's judgement.
3. What Nirvaan is not for
| Not for | |
|---|---|
| Emergencies of any kind | Call 112 |
| Severe pain, bleeding, injury, testicular torsion, priapism, or acute symptoms | Go to hospital |
| Suicidal thoughts or self-harm | Call 14416 or 112 |
| Anyone under 18 | Prohibited |
| Conditions requiring physical examination to assess safely | Needs in-person care |
| Sexual assault or abuse that has just occurred | Go to hospital; see §12 |
| Emergency contraception time-critical decisions | See a pharmacist or doctor in person |
| Pregnancy termination | Regulated separately; requires in-person care |
| Pre-natal sex determination | Illegal under the PCPNDT Act, 1994 |
| Fertility treatment, ART or surrogacy services | Separately regulated |
| Obtaining controlled or restricted drugs | See §6 |
| "Conversion" or "corrective" therapy for sexual orientation or gender identity | Prohibited absolutely — see §3.1 |
3.1 No conversion therapy
No practitioner on Nirvaan may offer, suggest or provide any therapy aimed at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
Such practice is prohibited by Indian professional regulation, has been held unlawful, and causes documented harm. Any practitioner found offering it is removed permanently and reported to their council.
Being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning is not a condition and is not treated as one on this platform. Distress arising from stigma, family pressure or self-acceptance is a legitimate reason to seek support, and support means support — never an attempt to change the person.
4. Emergencies and crisis
Nirvaan has no emergency capability. Practitioners are not on standby, consultations are not monitored, and messages are not read in real time by anyone at Caresoft.
Emergency: 112 · Mental health: Tele-MANAS 14416 (24×7)
- A practitioner who becomes concerned during a consultation that a patient is at risk of harm will end the clinical discussion and direct the patient to emergency services. They cannot send help, and where the patient is anonymous, nobody can locate them.
- Crisis resources are displayed at the point of signup, in the consultation interface, and on relevant content pages.
- If you are worried about your safety at any point, leave the platform and call for help. Nothing about a consultation matters more than that.
5. Telemedicine rules
Every consultation on Nirvaan is a teleconsultation governed by the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, 2020, issued under the Indian Medical Council Act framework. Those Guidelines are binding on the practitioner and set out:
- that the practitioner must be a Registered Medical Practitioner and must identify themselves and display their registration number;
- that the patient's consent to a teleconsultation is required and must be recorded;
- which categories of medicine may be prescribed remotely, and which may not;
- that the practitioner must use professional judgement about whether a teleconsultation is appropriate at all, and must advise in-person care where it is not;
- record-keeping obligations for the consultation and any prescription.
Nirvaan records versioned consent before every consultation, displays the practitioner's registration, and enforces the prescribing lists in software (§6). Enforcement in software supports the practitioner; it does not replace their judgement or their responsibility.
Counsellors, psychologists and therapists who are not Registered Medical Practitioners may not prescribe at all, and their scope on the platform is limited accordingly.
6. What may and may not be prescribed
The Telemedicine Practice Guidelines restrict remote prescribing to specified lists. Drugs on the prohibited list may never be prescribed through a teleconsultation, regardless of what a patient asks for or how confident a practitioner is.
- Nirvaan enforces the Guidelines' drug lists at the point of prescription. A restricted drug cannot be issued through the platform.
- Narcotic and psychotropic substances under the NDPS Act, 1985 are never prescribed on this platform.
- Schedule X drugs and other restricted categories are not available through the platform.
- A practitioner may decline to prescribe anything at all, and being charged for a consultation does not entitle a patient to a prescription. A consultation is a professional opinion, not a purchase of medicine.
- Every prescription issued carries the practitioner's name, qualification and registration number, and can be verified at our public verification page.
- Prescriptions are the practitioner's professional act. Caresoft does not review, approve or countersign them.
Patients: do not pressure a practitioner for a specific medicine. Sexual health is a category where unlicensed and counterfeit products are widely sold, and where the right answer is often not a tablet. A practitioner who declines is doing their job.
7. No physical examination
A remote consultation cannot include a physical examination. That is a real clinical limitation, not a formality.
- Some conditions cannot be diagnosed or safely excluded without examination or investigation. The practitioner will say so and advise in-person care.
- The platform does not support the sending of intimate images, and patients must never be asked for them. A practitioner who requests such an image is in breach of these rules and must be reported immediately (§17).
- Where investigations are needed, the practitioner will advise which — the patient obtains them independently and may return with the results.
- A practitioner may end a consultation at any point on the ground that it is not suitable for this medium. Where they do so early, refund treatment is in the Refund Policy.
8. Practitioner verification
| We verify | We do not verify |
|---|---|
| Identity documents | Clinical competence or skill |
| Registration with the relevant council, and its currency | Bedside manner or communication quality |
| Qualifications claimed | Outcomes for any patient |
| That registration has not been suspended or cancelled | Whether any complaint exists elsewhere |
- Verification is a check, not an endorsement. A verified badge means the person is who they say and is registered to practise — nothing more.
- Practitioners must notify us immediately if their registration is suspended, cancelled or subject to proceedings. We re-verify periodically.
- Patient ratings and reviews reflect individual experience and are moderated for abuse and for content breaching §10. They are not a measure of clinical quality.
- Practitioners must practise within their own qualification and scope, and must refer on where a matter falls outside it.
9. Self-assessment tools
Free self-assessment tools on Nirvaan are educational aids, not diagnostic instruments. A result is not a diagnosis, does not mean you have or do not have a condition, and must never be used to decide against seeking care.
- Tools do not account for your history, medication, other conditions or circumstances.
- A reassuring result does not exclude anything. If you are worried, that is reason enough to speak to a practitioner regardless of what a tool said.
- Where a tool's responses suggest risk of self-harm, crisis resources are displayed immediately and prominently.
- Anonymous tool results may be claimed into an account at signup, at the user's choice. They are never shared with a practitioner without the patient's action.
10. Educational content
- Articles and guides are general information, not medical advice, and are not a substitute for consulting a practitioner about your own situation.
- Content is subject to the Content & Advertising Policy, which enforces the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954. That Act is a criminal statute and it names sexual impotence among the conditions for which remedies may not be advertised.
- No content on Nirvaan may claim to cure, guarantee an outcome, promise enlargement or enhancement, or advertise a remedy for a Schedule condition.
- Content that names a condition for educational or myth-correcting purposes is permitted and reviewed. The distinction is between informing and selling.
- Where content is medically reviewed, the reviewer and date are shown. Content without a named reviewer is general information only.
11. Age — 18 and over only
Nirvaan is for adults aged 18 and over. It is not available to minors under any circumstances.
A practitioner who becomes aware or suspects that a user is under 18 must end the consultation immediately, must not provide clinical advice, must not prescribe, and must report it to the platform at once.
- Users confirm they are 18 or over at signup. Accounts found to belong to a minor are closed.
- A minor seeking help with a sexual health matter needs appropriate in-person care through a parent, guardian or child health service — not an anonymous adult consultation platform.
- Where a disclosure suggests a minor has been harmed, §12 applies and legal obligations override anonymity.
12. Safeguarding
[REFERENCE THE SAFEGUARDING PROTOCOL HERE ONCE FINALISED]
Nirvaan operates a written Safeguarding Protocol governing what a practitioner does, what is escalated to the platform, what is recorded, and what is reported. Practitioners are trained on it before activation and are bound by it under the Practitioner Terms.
Consultations in this category will sometimes surface disclosures of a kind that require action beyond clinical advice:
| Disclosure | Response |
|---|---|
| Recent sexual assault | Direct to hospital immediately; explain the availability of medico-legal care and that it is time-sensitive; do not discourage reporting; do not pressure toward it either |
| Ongoing coercion, control or domestic abuse | Direct to appropriate support services; do not advise on confronting the abuser; be aware the patient's device may be monitored |
| Sexual activity involving a person under 18 | Mandatory reporting obligations apply under the POCSO Act, 2012. Escalate to the platform immediately. Anonymity does not survive a legal obligation |
| Risk of self-harm or suicide | Provide crisis resources immediately; direct to 14416 or 112; end the clinical discussion |
| Risk of serious harm to another identifiable person | Escalate to the platform; legal advice taken on disclosure |
Patients should understand this clearly: anonymity on Nirvaan protects your privacy from other users, from practitioners' curiosity, and from casual disclosure. It does not override the law.
Where a legal obligation to report exists — most importantly under POCSO where a child has been harmed — we will comply with it.
13. STI and partner notification
- A practitioner may advise that a patient should inform sexual partners of a possible infection. Nirvaan does not contact partners and cannot do so — there is no mechanism and it would be a serious breach of confidence.
- Partner notification is the patient's own decision and act, supported by advice on how to approach it.
- Some infections carry public health reporting obligations that fall on the diagnosing or treating facility, not on this platform.
- HIV-related consultations are subject to the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017, including its confidentiality and non-discrimination provisions. Practitioners must observe them.
- Nirvaan does not perform, order or report tests. Where investigations are advised, the patient obtains them independently.
14. Anonymity and its limits
How anonymity works. Patients consult under a display name they choose. Real name and mobile number are masked from the practitioner at the data layer. Calls are bridged through a platform number so neither party sees the other's. Every attempt to unmask is audited.
Anonymity ends only where:
- a legal obligation requires disclosure, including under the POCSO Act (§12);
- a court, tribunal or lawful authority compels it;
- the patient chooses to identify themselves; or
- a delivery address is needed for a store order, which the patient provides knowingly.
Anonymity has a clinical cost, and patients should weigh it. A practitioner working without your identity, history or records is working with less than a doctor who knows you. For anything ongoing or serious, identified care with continuity is better medicine — this platform is a starting point, not a replacement for having a doctor.
15. The product store
- Products requiring a prescription are gated on a valid prescription issued through the platform. They cannot be purchased otherwise.
- Caresoft is not a pharmacy and does not dispense medicine. Fulfilment arrangements are as stated at checkout.
- Non-prescription products carry no therapeutic claim. Product listings are subject to the Content & Advertising Policy and may not claim to cure, enhance or guarantee anything.
- Buying a product is never a substitute for a consultation, and no product on the store treats a condition on its own.
16. Continuity of care
Nirvaan is episodic care. There is no guarantee that the same practitioner will be available again, no ongoing responsibility for a patient between consultations, and no monitoring of anyone's condition.
- Patients with an ongoing or serious condition should be under the care of a practitioner who knows them, in person.
- A practitioner will advise where continuity is needed and will not attempt to manage remotely something that requires it.
- Consultation records and advice notes remain in the patient's account so they can be shown to another doctor. Patients are encouraged to tell their regular doctor about advice received here.
- No practitioner on Nirvaan is "your doctor" in a continuing sense unless you separately arrange that with them outside the platform.
17. Reporting a safety concern
Report also if the platform behaves in a way that could affect safety — a prescription generating incorrectly, a record appearing against the wrong account, crisis resources not displaying.
- Safety reports are acknowledged within [4] working hours and triaged ahead of routine support.
- A practitioner may be suspended immediately, before investigation, where a report concerns patient safety or conduct. Suspension is not a finding.
- Evidence is preserved. Do not delete the conversation.
- Serious findings are reported to the practitioner's council and, where required, to the authorities.
- Reporting does not affect a patient's access to the platform, and retaliation against a reporter is itself a serious breach.
18. Regulatory position
[TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE PUBLIC LAUNCH — WITH INDIAN REGULATORY COUNSEL]
State here the platform's position on: intermediary status under the Information Technology Act, 2000; the application of the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, 2020 to a marketplace operator as distinct from a practitioner; the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, 1954 perimeter for all content and store listings; the Drugs and Cosmetics Act position for any product fulfilment; and whether any element of the platform constitutes software as a medical device.
This is the highest-risk regulatory surface of any product in the Caresoft portfolio. The category is named in a criminal advertising statute, the service is telemedicine, and the store touches drug supply. Do not launch on a self-assessment.
19. Changes
This Statement is versioned. Material changes to scope, prescribing rules, safeguarding or crisis handling are notified in advance to practitioners with updated training, and to patients before their next consultation.