Career in Postal Services

Ranjan K Baruah *

From our childhood we have seen the importance of the postman in our life. Being in the hostel we feel more importance of the postman as we wait for letters, money order, etc.

Digital transactions have made life easy but money order was the most important way of sending money from one place to another. We must know many other aspects apart from the emotional connection we have with the postal system.

We should know that postal operators provide some 1.5 billion people worldwide with access to basic financial services (payments, money transfers, and savings). The global parcels market has grown from just under 450 billion USD in 2018 to over 500 billion USD in 2020.

With a network comprising more than 650,000 offices and 5.3 million staff globally, and a public service mandate from many governments, the Post is unparalleled in its ability to deliver services to anyone, anywhere.

World Post Day(WPD) is celebrated each year on 9 October, the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union(UPU) in 1874 in the Swiss Capital, Bern. It was declared WPD by the UPU Congress held in Tokyo, Japan in 1969.

Since then, countries across the world participate annually in the celebrations. The Posts in many countries use the event to introduce or promote new postal products and services.

In 2015 countries all over the world committed themselves to working together towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to end extreme poverty and hunger, fight inequality and injustice, and take action to reverse climate change - to name just some of these 17 agreed new Goals. Playing its part in this global effort, the Post today has a more relevant role than ever by providing infrastructure for development.

We are aware that post offices play a crucial role in fostering cohesive, inclusive, connected communities. Presently, over five million postal employees are entrusted with a variety of essential and personal items, from messages, gifts and goods, to money and medicines.

In India, the Department of Posts (DoP) has been the backbone of the country’s communication and has played a crucial role in the country’s social economic development.

It touches the lives of Indian citizens in many ways: delivering mails, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance cover under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. With more than 1, 55,000 post offices, the DoP has the most widely distributed postal network in the world.

This brings more career opportunities for you people who want to join postal services or career in Indian Post. The Indian Postal Service is one of the Group ‘A’ Civil Services of India.

They are responsible for running ‘India Post’, the largest postal network in the world which provides services ranging from traditional postal services to banking and e-commerce services.

Apart from officials there are many other posts for the deserving candidates.

The private players have emerged in a big way in a country like India where we see many courier and cargo services all over the country. Innovation, integration and inclusion is needed to make the post vibrant and that can be done by people who work in the services.

Indian Post is under government and similarly there are private players. One may choose specialization courses like logistics or cargo management to get engaged in courier and cargo services.