Would you become a postman today? Yes, India Post is all very gung ho. Its Delhi circle is recruiting 732 postmen (and women) and eight mail guards. These are government jobs, so you can carry on until retirement even if there is no work. But it is strange that a profession endangered all over the world is blossoming in India.

Postmen are not just endangered, they are threatened. Look at some instances across countries:

November 23, 2012 — With over 3,000 attacks on British postmen by dogs in a year, Royal Mail says it will take legal action against the owners of dogs that maul its staff and may even consider suspending deliveries to their homes.

March 8, 2014 — Post has not been delivered to 73 homes following an alleged incident involving a Victorian American Bulldog. Postal deliveries have been halted on a Teesside street amid claims that a postman was threatened.

April 2, 2014 — The mail carrier for a block in Cedar Rapids felt threatened by a resident Chihuahua, the smallest breed of dog in the world. The US Postal Service temporarily halted deliveries out of concern for the carrier’s safety.

June 30, 2014 — Posties are biting back against dangerous dogs after launching a crackdown to keep vicious pets under control. A chilling toll of 344 postmen and women were mauled by dogs last year in Scotland — nearly one every day.

A postman’s job is obviously not safe in a canine sense. But is it safe at a more mundane level. Email has replaced the postman to some extent. But there are government departments (and other places where the government sets the rules) that insist on print documents. The postman will survive in India for some time now.

In the US, however, the postman is at the top of the threatened species. Take mail carrier, one of the jobs most impacted by technology and among the most endangered. It finished at 200 out of 200 careers examined by CareerCast in 2014. The Labour Bureau says there will be a decline of 28 per cent in numbers by 2022. Incidentally, the postman in the US earns a median salary of $53,100 per annum. This is a little less than Rs 3 lakh a month. The new postmen in Delhi will get “a monthly salary of Rs 5,200 to Rs 20,200 with grade pay of Rs 2,000”. Small wonder that postmen in the West can take a bite or two in their stride.

The postman used to be an honoured profession in India; to some extent he still is. In rural areas, his job was not just delivering the letters; he had to read them too to hundreds of illiterate recipients. Today, it’s not email that has replaced the traditional letter. It’s the mobile phone. Almost everybody in India has access to a mobile phone these days, even in remote villages.

India has 1.55 lakh post offices, 89 per cent in rural areas. India Post is adding more offices through the franchise route. If there is anything more risky than becoming a postman, it is turning entrepreneur and seeking a post office franchise.

So is the postman as a profession dead? No, because packages must be delivered and ecommerce has already made a huge splash. Amazon India is doing a pilot of a project with Speed Post (a premium service from India Post.)

The Postman Always Rings Twice, wrote James M. Cain, a leading writer of the hardboiled roman noir. Nobody ever figured out the name because the book had no postman. In India, of course, the postman will not be able to ring twice.

The rural areas, which he effectively services, have no bells. Even if they did, they have no electricity. As long as infrastructure is lacking, the postman will continue to have a job.

100 YEARS AGO

Not dogs alone

Sahara: The postman is in danger every trip that he makes because the wild tribes regard him as their particular prey.
Switzerland: The postman is considered one of the most dangerous professions. Some of the post offices are situated at a height of 7,000 ft. The letter box at Languard is 10,000 feet above sea level.
India: The postman always has to be on the lookout for snakes. It is claimed that within the last year, 150 died of snakebite and 27 were eaten by tigers.
Source: The Spokesman Review, April 22, 1913