PIN code @50 years

Source: This post is based on the article  “PIN code @50 years” published in The Hindu on  29^th August 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 – e-governance applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential.

Relevance: About the achievements of the postal code.

News: India Post introduced a six-digit Postal Index Number (PIN) code on August 15, 1972. The idea was to give a unique identity to all physical addresses of the country in terms of the delivery jurisdiction of the post offices.

It is time to analyse the system’s progress in achieving its purpose in the last 50 years.

Postal code in other countries

The postal code is known differently in different countries. For example, postcode, zip code, etc. It is an alpha-numeric or numeric number that is included in the postal address for easy identification of the sorting district and the addressee’s delivery post office.

The codes were introduced nationwide in Germany in the year 1944, Singapore (1950), Argentina (1958), the U.S. (1963), Switzerland (1964), India (1972), and the U.K. (1974).

The Universal Postal Union says that 160 countries of the world have so far introduced postal codes.

Postal code in India

The PIN code helps in taking a piece of mail to the addressee’s post office. The delivery jurisdiction of the post office is normally divided into beats and there is a postman assigned to each beat.

What are the advantages of the postal code?

a) The postal code revolutionised the system of manual postal sorting as the sorters are not required to keep in memory the locations of thousands of post offices.

b) PIN-coded mails in India started improving after the introduction of computerised billing by utility service providers and the launching of KYC norms by banks, where providing complete and accurate addresses is mandatory.

c) Though the code was originally designed to help postal operations, today it is used by couriers, e-commerce players and various other service providers as a means of locational identification of a person.

What are the concerns surrounding the postal code?

The government made efforts to educate the citizens to write the PIN code of the addressee in the mail. Even after five decades, a) a substantial volume of mail in India is not PIN-coded, b) beat sorting at the post office is done manually in India.

The code may not be operationally relevant in the new role of a post office. This includes, 1) Personal mail has almost vanished after the revolution of mobile telephony in the last two decades, 2) The postal system at present transport only documents and e-commerce parcels, but it is facing stiff competition from couriers.

What should be done to improve the postal code system?

Integrating the beat code with the six-digit PIN code: This can facilitate the PIN code not only identifying the addressee’s post office but also the concerned beat.

Improve connectivity with postman: The post office makes the mobile number of the delivery person of the beat available. This can facilitate citizens to leave instructions regarding their convenience in taking delivery.

The utilisation of machines: The letter sorting machines, flat sorting machines (handling packets) and parcel sorting machines have a tremendous capacity for sorting in a day. This has to be utilised effectively.

Centralise the parcel delivery centres and mechanise the beats: The logistic system associated with the e-commerce parcels is intrinsically different from that of handling personal mails. The postman does not need a vehicle for delivery of fewer e-commerce parcels. This should be done with centralised parcel delivery centres.