The following excerpt is taken from the chapter, ‘Indian Postal Service: A Rewarding Social Service’

OVER the years, I have seen the impact on the Postal Services as a result of dramatic changes in communication technology. The spread of telephony, internet and modernised banking services have threatened the monopolistic nature of the post, as also the rising expectations of customers. How did and how will the department cope with these demands? How will it retain the trust and support of the customers and continue to be socially relevant in the present competitive environment? These are some of questions which assail and which challenge the officers who man the Postal Service.

The officer who joined the Postal Service thinking it a cushy government job was in for a shock. He soon became aware of the multidimensional nature of their job and the challenges of operating a huge network in a competitive environment.

But the fact that despite the communication revolution the department has survived speaks volumes of the role played by the officers at the cutting edge, the executive and the policy level. To know and understand how this was achieved, we need to go back to the formal setting of the organisation, the incorporation of [the] Indian Postal Service as an all India Service to man the postal network which was a legacy we inherited from the British, and its journey through the decades to become an essential component of India’s development programme and policy as well as provide services to its customers on value for money basis.

Though communication is as old as civilisation and various forms of conveyance of messages and dak existed in India, the institution as we know it was established with the Act of 1854 with the issue of a postage stamp and appointment of its first DG. The organisation was then controlled by the Department of Home, Government of India, and, therefore, perceived as an instrument of imperial expansion and consolidation. The core activity was dealing with mails that included letters, registered post, parcel and their transmission and delivery. It gradually introduced new products such as money order, insurance and postal orders and Value Payable Post (VPP) services.

As the network grew, the government started utilising it for resource mobilisation through small savings which were introduced as an agency function in May 1883, soon followed in 1884 with Postal Life Insurance for government servants. The service continued to grow with its field formations and the setting up of the Army postal service. With the expansion of telegraph and railway lines, conveyance and transmission improved. The Act of 1898 provided it with a legislative framework. Air mail provided a rare fillip to transmission of international mail in addition to sea mail and led to the establishment of foreign mail offices.

At the time of Independence, the number of post offices was about 23,344. These did not include offices in the postal systems operating under some of the princely states. During the British rule, the management of the Postal Service was under the DG and postmaster generals who were from the ICS; officers at the middle level were from the provincial group B services. With the amalgamation of the Postal Services of the Indian state and with the deliberate policy of expanding the postal network in the rural and remote areas so as to provide social connectivity as part of the social responsibility, it became essential to provide a special cadre of dedicated officers as All India service and the Indian Postal Service was set up as a group A service in 1948.

Today, this cadre manages a network of 1.55 lakh post offices, the largest in the world. It has a work force of 292,672 full time or departmental employees and 309,915 extra departmental employees or Gram Dak Sevak (GDS) as they are mainly in rural areas, a feature unique to this department. The regular employees man the departmental post offices whereas the GDS mans the branch post offices which are generally located in the rural areas.

The organisation is headed by a secretary to the Government of India who is also the DG of the department and chairman of the Postal Services board whose strength has been recently increased from three to six members. Below this apex body are 22 circles coterminous in most cases with states and headed by a chief postmaster general in the Higher Administrative Grade (HAG). Below him in the Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) are regional postmaster generals who have officers designated as directors in the junior administrative grade to assist them. Each region is subdivided into a number of divisions, equivalent to a revenue district headed by a superintendent or senior superintendent of post offices.

The cadre has at present 550 officers and at a given time at least 10 per cent officers are on deputation either in the central staffing scheme or in the Army Postal Service; approximately 450 group A officers have to manage a vast labour force. The Army Postal Service, which is under the base circle, is headed by an Indian postal officer designated as additional director general in the rank of a major general in the army. Every year at least 30 officers are on deputation to the Army Postal Service.

Besides the field formation, the department has a number of training institutions. The premier one is Postal Staff College which is responsible for in-service training of gazetted officers and is headed by a director of HAG rank. For the clerical staff, there are five postal training centres, viz., Vadodara, Mysore, Sarhanpur, Madurai, Guwahati and Darbangha headed by director level officers. Mysore, which also houses the software development centre, is under an SAG officer.

Postal Staff College, which during my probation, that is, in the year 1979, was located on the 9th and 11th floors of Sanchar Bhavan, is now in a sprawling campus with lush greenery and landscaped gardens in Ghaziabad. Training here is in two modules. In the first, it is induction in departmental rules and administration and familiarisation with various functions of organisation. This is followed by field attachments and on-job training in various subordinate key posts, such as inspector and postmaster and also (which was not in my time) as marketing managers. In module two, personnel management, leadership and communication development along with case studies were emphasised to prepare us to undertake the onerous responsibility of managing on first appointment a strongly unionised work force of between 1,500 to 2,000 and ensuring the maintenance and upkeep of a large network of post offices mainly in the rural areas. With technology induction in the post offices and the remarkable transformation in communication, training in technology management and business development is also imparted and Staff College has a well-equipped computer lab and a visiting faculty of management experts.

Though the training gave us the necessary knowledge, it is the actual job experience which makes one realise the opportunities, potential, challenges and pitfalls of a post. My tenure as senior superintendent I considered as one of the most memorable as it is at this stage that one is at the actual implementing level where it is possible to monitor the delivery of services. While interacting with the branch postmasters in the villages, I realised the potential of the post office to become the mechanism of social change for in many places the branch postmaster, who is drawn from the local community, is the only central government functionary. The post office reach can, therefore, be utilised to deliver products and services as well as a dissemination of knowledge on various government programmes.

Excerpted with permission from

Governance in South Asia: State of the Civil Service

Edited by K.S. Chalam

SAGE Publications, India, 2014

ISBN 978-81-321-1365-2

304pp.