Aadhar Enrolments: Why Post Office is the Popular Choice?
- Anurag Priyadarshee*
Of late, post
offices across the country have been attracting large crowds eager to
enroll themselves for Aadhar. In many post offices enrolment slots for
the whole year are already booked and citizens are being advised to book
post office appointments for the enrolment in the next year.
Post offices are
used to having unmanageable rush of customers off and on, as they keep
being entrusted with a variety of assignments due to their unparalleled
reach among Indian citizens. People rushing to the post offices for
Aadhar enrolment is however significant in view of the fact that post
offices are not the only agency engaged in this work. Despite the fact
that banks, state governments agencies and other institutions are also
offering this service, people are seen distinctly preferring the post
offices to get themselves enrolled for Aadhar.
Raghavendra Rao
and his friends in Bangalore, for instance, have got appointment for
Aadhar enrolment at the post office in February next year. He is quoted
by Bangalore Mirror in its 6 September 2011 issue mentioning that
he would wait for his turn and get registered at the post office only.
He and his friends do not want to go anywhere else for this purpose even
if his turn may come much faster there.
Such loyalty to
the Post Office is a vindication of the pro-people culture and
environment nurtured and evolved at post offices over a century and a
half. While people, especially those belonging to the under-privileged
strata, find it intimidating to attend a bank branch or other government
office, they feel at ease while transacting at the post offices. The
Post Office as an institution is more deeply rooted in various local
social structures than any other similar institution, whether public or
private. This rich ‘bridging’ social capital is being leveraged while
offering schemes such as Aadhar enrolment at post offices.
There may be some
learnings here for policymakers designing programmes for improvement of
wellbeing of the common people. Deeper engagement of Post Offices with
delivery of social sector programmes may address several constraints
associated with them.
