Gone are the days when people had patience to write a letter and anxiously await a reply. Today, people are able to make instant decisions and communicate instantly via a text message or email, replacing the need to write a letter.

Back in the day, Sri Lanka had a culture of using pigeons to send messages between two factions which began during colonial era and continued till recent times. Dovecotes found in various parts of the country including Mannar bear testimony to this once popular mode of communication. This was followed by postal services. Although a postman would still do his rounds to date, it would be to deliver a bill or a notice from a government institution in most instances except for one or two personal letters in rural areas. 
During the recently concluded World Post Day, the Postal Service Department of Sri Lanka introduced a new logo and is hoping to function hand-in-hand with digitisation to survive in this age of technology.

The battle with digitisation

The first established form of postal service dates back to 1789 when the Dutch introduced several maritime services. Therefore they had setup post offices in Colombo, Galle, Jaffna and Mannar.  “With digitisation, people thought the postal service would be paralysed,” said Ranjit Ariyaratne, Postmaster General of Sri Lanka. “But it didn’t happen that way. Although there’s less exchange of letters between person to person after we started using information technology the billing concept was created. Therefore, certain institutions such as banks still make use of postal services to send reports related to finances etc. But now the younger generation is moving towards e-billing services. On the other hand e-commerce is fast developing and most transactions therefore happen online. Then again there’s no way to transport goods from one place to the other. Therefore postal services are used for this purpose. Although letter mailing services have reduced in frequency, couriering of goods became a necessity. But one challenge we faced was the involvement of the private sector.”
He further said that although the postal services started moving towards digitisation since 2009, the system isn’t sufficient today. “Among government institutions, it is only in our department that a bicycle travels to every lane in the country. Our postmen work round the clock and many institutions like to use that strength. But the information technology system we introduced isn’t sufficient today. It’s a big investment and since it didn’t happen on time we are in a crisis. But now we are trying to develop a new system.”

Postal services are still valid

In Sri Lanka there are 3410 sub post offices and 653 post offices with a cadre of 26,000 employees. According to Ariyaratne, no other organisation has such a vast network. Many people question whether postal services are necessary in this day and age but it is an essential service today. During the recently concluded Universal Postal Union conference. all countries that are party to this union have an agreement on pricing structures. But many countries have misinterpreted this agreement. There are four categories under which various countries are listed and as a developing country Sri Lanka is in category D. Therefore we only have to pay a small amount. Since US is the biggest buyer China is trying to make use of developing and poor countries. Therefore US decided to pull off. If they did, we would have to sign agreements again and rates will also be revised. This shows that postal services are still valid.”

Stamp collecting -  a dying hobby?

Stamps are synonymous with letters and stamp collecting has been an age old hobby. The world’s first postage stamp was created by Sir Roland Hill in 1840 with an image of Queen Victoria. Ceylon’s first postage stamp was released in April 1, 1857. “Stamps are issued according to an international standard,” he continued. “We have an advisory committee for stamps and they decide on which occasions should stamps be issued for the next year. We issue commemorative stamps under different categories. On the other hand we print personalised stamps as well. But this is a paid service. We have a stamp fair every two months where stamp collectors and buyers get together. We feel that foreigners are interested in postal services than locals. When they come here they make it a point to post a postcard from here as a memoir. In view of World Post Day we have established a post box at the highest point in Sri Lanka. Once they go there and post a letter, the frank will mention it as the highest point. Post boxes will also be established in all four corners of the country and at Nalanda Gedige which is considered to be the centre point. I think parents should encourage their children to engage in these hobbies as collecting stamps is quite interesting.”
Interest among youth 

It is quite normal to see senior citizens engaged in manual labour, especially in Sri Lanka. This is the same in the case of the postal service department but plans are underway to prepare a safer environment for them. “Ageing is becoming a global health concern so we are trying to include senior citizens in postal services without getting them to come to the post office. By 2040 senior citizens will comprise 30% of the population. In our Organisation, we hope to provide elderly care for those involved in postal services, have elderly care centres and introduce social protection initiatives. On the other hand the youth is moving away from us. By digitalising our services we hope that we will be able to attract more youth. We can establish a payment gate. The youth doesn’t like to carry out the duties of a postman. On one hand it’s a disadvantage because the more we become industrialised the more we become unhealthy.” 

A matter of trust

The Department is running at a Rs. 5 billion loss and is battling to survive with the much efficient private sector. “We don’t have a monopoly anymore. Theres a huge gap between our income and expenditure. Although we earn Rs. 8 billion we spend around Rs. 13 billion. The cost of posting a letter is Rs. 15 but it has to be raised to at least Rs. 22. So we post letters at a loss of Rs. 7. We handle around 1.3 million items per day and most of it is done manually. So even if there’s a tiny error we get a blame. My message to the people is to place their trust in us,” he concluded. 

Pics by: Damith Wickramasinghe