Dear Comrades,
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has stolen the thunder from his other
ministerial colleagues on Women’s Day. If Finance Minister P Chidambaram
made news and drew initial applause from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi,
Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar by
announcing an all-women bank, Sibal has gone a step ahead by quietly
working on an all-women post office. The post office was inaugurated
today at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi.
Various public sector banks, departments and ministries have been
vying to draw attention with liberal splurging on big advertisements in
various publications for what they call a noble cause: giving a sense of
pride to women and raising awareness to treat them with dignity and
respect. It’s a different matter though that the morning headlines in
prominent dailies painted a scary picture on the issue of women safety
in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).
In this backdrop, no one can be particularly sure of the driving idea
behind Sibal’s all-women post office at Shastri Bhawan, adjacent to
Parliament and one of the most secure places in the national Capital.
Shastri Bhawan houses around a dozen department and ministerial offices
of the Union government. High and mighty ministers have their offices
and the place is under 24X7 strict vigil of Central Industrial Security
Force (CISF). Delhi Police provide the outer ring vigil.
Sibal at the innauguration of the all-women post office. Image courtesy: PIB
There was no official word or study to show that the women employees
and visitors felt insecure entering a post office in same area that had
male employees. In fact, post office employees (male included) appeared
to be relatively subdued as compared to their counterparts in other
government departments. It would be interesting to see if in the days to
come the new or the nation’s first all-women post office sees rise in
number of women visitors.
The prospect of higher number of male visitors frequenting this first
women post office could be high. After all, there would be a great deal
of curiosity about it. But whether or not that brings greater business
to the Indian Postal Department, or to that post office, would be known
only after a year. For now, no one is complaining in Shastri Bhawan and
in other big government buildings in the neighbourhood. Employees at all
levels, senior officers to lowly babus are amused about Sibal’s move.
“In coming days, I believe there will be more all-women post offices
across country for convenience of women. This is first office in the
country where all employees will be women. The government is looking
into problem faced by woman and this is just a symbolic step,” Sibal
said.
The next such post office is coming in North-Campus of Delhi
University. The official reason: a high concentration of female students
in the campus, both as resident and as day scholars. With the advent of
mobile phones not many of them go to post office in any case. But
that’s gesture from the government to convey to female students that it
cares for their safety and was creating a better living environment in
the campus.
P Gopinath, Secretary, Department of Posts, had a different rationale to offer for opening all-women post offices.
“There is a different comfort level when women interact among
themselves. Keeping all this in mind we will open post offices in places
where there are large number of women. We have identified Mumbai,
Chennai, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Bangalore to start with,”
she said.
Later in an informal chat with media personnel, Sibal said the
experience from all women-post office would be a useful feed back for
the all-women bank, promised by Chidambaram in the Union budget.
It could also be used for basic research work for the hyped bank. What
kind of feedback the Finance Ministry will seek and receive from this
post office will be interesting to note.
firstpost.com
