State’s third and the capital city’s first all-women post office was unveiled at the State capital on Saturday. last year, two such post offices were started at Jamshedpur and Dhanbad. The Postal department is mulling to open more such post offices in other parts as well.
“There is an immediate need of opening women centric post offices in rural areas since they have to walk miles to post a letter. We felt the need through Vivid Bharti’s Sakhi Saheli programme wherein letters written by women is highlighted. The nearest facility of posting a letter is around 5 to 10 kilometres away,” Dr Neerja Prasad, chairman of post women’s welfare committee also the wife of chief post master general Abhay Shekhar Prasad said after inaugurating the post office.
“Women can enquire about the facilities available in post office without hesitation as the conversation will be restricted to women,” Prasad added. Notably, the uniqueness of the post office is that it is managed exclusively by women employees. In order to strengthen the business development between employees and customers, such an initiative is being implemented. “We have a long term plan of increasing the employment strength of women in the postal services,” Abhay Shekhar Prasad said.
Interestingly, the post office serves men customers also. Around 11,000 accounts have been opened here since September 2013 when the decision to transform the AG Bihar post office for women was declared. Four employees deployed here including sub-postmaster Pushplata Champi, postal assistants Mary Kandulna and Asha Kumari along with multi tasking staff Khushboo Kumari said most of the accounts belong to working women. “Majority of the women have a joint account with their husbands in our branch,” Champi said.
Sources maintained IAS officer Mridula Sinha also has an account in the post office as her official residence is near to the branch. However, the postal department official missed mentioning an indication of women’s post office around the vicinity.
Presently, postal department is receiving a wide response towards its Mahila Pradhan Kisan Vikas Yojna (MPKVY). “Depending on the overall response of the three all-women post offices, we will identify locations for the remaining post offices of this gender,’ postal services director Shailendra Dwivedi said.