Even in today's era dominated by cell phones and email, millions of Indians continue to rely on postal services to reach across to their loved ones, yet understandably growth in the usage of snail mail has been stagnant.
According to the latest Annual Report (2014-15) of the Department of Posts (DOP), statistics of mail traffic ( a terminology which is used in the annual report to define the quantum of mail) handled during the year 2013-14, for which data has been collated shows a minuscule overall surge of 0.52% as compared to the preceding year. Overall, during 2013-14, DOP handled 608 crore registered and unregistered letters (post cards and inland letters all fall in this category), speed posts and express parcel posts. While growth in these three categories, as classified by DOP, has seen slight see-saw swings, unlike the telegram, these means of correspondence are not yet dead.
To an extent post cards are also used by activists in their campaigns. For instance, despite the fact, that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is a social media enthusiast and regular tweeter, according to news agencies a month ago nearly 5 lakh Indians sent him a post card under the "Action 2015" campaign, a global movement spanning across 140 countries. In addition, use was also made of twitter. This campaign, initiated by Noble Laureate Malala Yousafzai, had called upon citizens to approach their governments and ask them to formulate sustainable development goals at the United Nations Assembly to be held later this September.
DOP also has to come up to speed with new requirements. For instance, its annual report cites that a total of 19.4 crore Aadhaar cards were distributed via Speed Post. Later, during the period April to December 2014, 5.50 crore Aadhaar cards were dispatched as first class franked mail. Even as regards financial numbers, the annual report for 2014-15 provides details of the previous year 2013-14. The deficit of DOP during this year was Rs 5,473.10 crore as against the deficit of Rs 5,425.89 crore in 2012-13.
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