“Australia’s postal service, for
example, has more parcel deliveries than mail. In the same manner, if our
e-commerce picks up, most of the people will make use of India Post (IP)
since we are the only players to have the widest possible network, and IP will
still have a chance to stay alive,” said Mervin Alexander, post master
general, Chennai circle.
The department is, however, constantly engaging with people through its philatelic activities and special initiatives, like ‘My Stamp’, of which it has sold over 5,000 models. “We are aware of the fact that letters will start to dwindle in the coming decades. However, we have already started to diversify our services. We are going to introduce core banking very soon,” said Mervin Alexander.
The philatelic activities of the
department continue to find takers. “Stamp collection will help one develop
patience and skill, those are the major benefits. The collection of stamps and
putting them together needs a lot of skill; there is also great scope for
learning about other countries,” said Dr S.S. Sukumar, former state president,
Indian Medical Association.
The department personnel claim that as
many as 60 lakh letters and greeting cards are delivered during New Year and
Christmas.
“I still preserve my father’s letters
which become precious after some years. The youth, these days, do not know what
they are missing because they were never in that era. My brother has written
long letters to us, scolding us; it brings back a fragment of memory when one
re-reads it today.
E-mail pinging does not give the feel
of a handwritten letter. We have lost our writing and reading habit over a
period of time,” said Dr Sujatha Priya, faculty of English at Anna University
in Chennai.
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