Dear Comrades,
The first all-women post office in India sets an example of sorts with
its top of the line service that comes with a smile and punctuality
The board outside the Shastri Bhavan post office in central Delhi is a
declaration of women’s empowerment. It says: This Post Office is
managed by Women Postal Employees.
Enter India’s first all-women post office that was inaugurated on International Women’s Day, on March 8 this year. The post office is wo-manned by the postmaster, two postal assistants and a multi-tasking service (MTS) person. The neat and clean air-conditioned interiors boast of drinking water and toilet facilities for the staff, a far cry from the regular post offices staffed by a single postmaster in a dingy and small space.
“We are women running the post office and, of course, as women we like to keep our space neat and spick and span,” says Saroj Varma, the first woman postmaster in an all-women post office in the country, as she settles in her chair for a chat.
An already running post office, it was converted into an all-women establishment later. “The public is interested in good quality service being provided to them,” she declares. “For us the customers are valuable,” she says, and adds punctuality and honesty are factors crucial to providing services through post offices. “We have to be time-conscious. The public should not have to wait for the post office to open. Time is of the essence. Our lunch break is also short, of half-hour duration.”
What are the services available at this post office? A booking office, one can post ordinary letters and send mail through speed post and registered post and parcels here. “And since March 8 this year all post office savings schemes are available here,” says Varma. While anyone can avail the post office services, women would probably feel more comfortable discussing a suitable saving scheme with a woman post master. Gold coins can also be purchased here. And besides regular postage and postal stationery, philatelic stamps too are available.
For Varma, as the postmaster, the work of administration and supervision of the post office and of the accounts and treasury come under her purview. Varma explains how the work at the post office has to be completed by the close of the working day. “No question of putting off the day’s work,” she quips.
“I share a very good rapport with my seniors,” reveals Varma. And this, she believes, is because of the mutual trust and confidence. “My senior, also a woman, often comes over to enquire after our welfare and the post office’s functioning.” Binti Choudhury, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices (Central Division), under whose jurisdiction the Shastri Bhawan post office comes, says the post office, “inaugurated symbolically on International Women’s Day has received a very encouraging response.” Now besides two in Delhi, other cities like Mumbai and Jammu too have opened all-women post offices.
That women have the capability to take on any responsibility in their jobs is something that Varma believes in and has exhibited too. “Women have come forward to engage in every profession and occupation,” she says, and recounts how she used to see a woman, among the CISF personnel, at duty, even when she was pregnant, in the Union Public Service Commission, when she was working in the post office there prior to her current assignment.
With the post office having the distinction of being the first all-women one, it could also come up with a permanent pictorial cancellation (postmark) showing the house sparrow, Delhi’s state bird.
It is impossible not to tell the postmaster that she is pleasant, friendly and puts into practise the dictum: service with a smile. Is that why she is occupying this position? Perhaps, she replies modestly.
Times of India
Enter India’s first all-women post office that was inaugurated on International Women’s Day, on March 8 this year. The post office is wo-manned by the postmaster, two postal assistants and a multi-tasking service (MTS) person. The neat and clean air-conditioned interiors boast of drinking water and toilet facilities for the staff, a far cry from the regular post offices staffed by a single postmaster in a dingy and small space.
“We are women running the post office and, of course, as women we like to keep our space neat and spick and span,” says Saroj Varma, the first woman postmaster in an all-women post office in the country, as she settles in her chair for a chat.
An already running post office, it was converted into an all-women establishment later. “The public is interested in good quality service being provided to them,” she declares. “For us the customers are valuable,” she says, and adds punctuality and honesty are factors crucial to providing services through post offices. “We have to be time-conscious. The public should not have to wait for the post office to open. Time is of the essence. Our lunch break is also short, of half-hour duration.”
What are the services available at this post office? A booking office, one can post ordinary letters and send mail through speed post and registered post and parcels here. “And since March 8 this year all post office savings schemes are available here,” says Varma. While anyone can avail the post office services, women would probably feel more comfortable discussing a suitable saving scheme with a woman post master. Gold coins can also be purchased here. And besides regular postage and postal stationery, philatelic stamps too are available.
For Varma, as the postmaster, the work of administration and supervision of the post office and of the accounts and treasury come under her purview. Varma explains how the work at the post office has to be completed by the close of the working day. “No question of putting off the day’s work,” she quips.
“I share a very good rapport with my seniors,” reveals Varma. And this, she believes, is because of the mutual trust and confidence. “My senior, also a woman, often comes over to enquire after our welfare and the post office’s functioning.” Binti Choudhury, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices (Central Division), under whose jurisdiction the Shastri Bhawan post office comes, says the post office, “inaugurated symbolically on International Women’s Day has received a very encouraging response.” Now besides two in Delhi, other cities like Mumbai and Jammu too have opened all-women post offices.
That women have the capability to take on any responsibility in their jobs is something that Varma believes in and has exhibited too. “Women have come forward to engage in every profession and occupation,” she says, and recounts how she used to see a woman, among the CISF personnel, at duty, even when she was pregnant, in the Union Public Service Commission, when she was working in the post office there prior to her current assignment.
With the post office having the distinction of being the first all-women one, it could also come up with a permanent pictorial cancellation (postmark) showing the house sparrow, Delhi’s state bird.
It is impossible not to tell the postmaster that she is pleasant, friendly and puts into practise the dictum: service with a smile. Is that why she is occupying this position? Perhaps, she replies modestly.
Times of India
