Not many may have noticed but postmen in the city of Mumbai are slowly changing. It is not just about delivering letters, stamping, and sorting, but things have evolved drastically over the past few years. It is now more about technology, the new postal app, and offering online help to customers.
While many have learned the new system well, Mumbai Region’s postal office has come up with a novel way to encourage them further by naming two as ‘Smartest Postman’ every month and giving them a badge.
The two postmen, or postwomen, will be chosen on merit every month by the Postmaster General. The criteria they will be judged on will be thoroughness of technology, overall get-up, look, feel, and neatness of uniform.
The initiative is the brainchild of Mumbai’s Postmaster General Swati Pandey. The badge has been designed in-house with the help of a philatelist and a representative of India as a Fellow for the Royal Philatelic Society, London, Kapil Gogri.
“Postmen have been serving us since time immemorial. However, they have never been rewarded for their arduous work and the tedious miles they cover. What is more impressive is that in this modern era, the get-up, look and feel and the personality of a postman have undergone a phenomenal change too! They have been trained to operate the latest post office mobile applications and each of them has become equally well-groomed, tech-savvy, and smart in their work. So to acknowledge their efforts and encourage the makeover of their image, we have initiated the ‘Smartest Postman’ campaign,” Pandey said.
Two postmen — Shobha Dinesh Chogle and Vilas Shankar Rane – from the Mumbai General Post Office (GPO) and two from Kalbadevi Head Post office — Shyamal Doye and Chetan Salimath — have been awarded the Smartest Postmen badge for the two months of 2021.
Surjitt Sahani
