India Post, Indian Railways join hands to deliver products made by women artisans across the country
India Post teams up with Indian Railways to deliver products made by women artisans in self-help groups across the country. This will increase their reach from and to the remotest corners of India.
India Post and the Indian Railways have come together to deliver products made by women artisans in self-help groups across the country recently.
During a recent visit to Lucknow, Minister of Railways, Communications, and Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw made the announcement while promoting the UP government’s One District One Product (ODOP) scheme.
“Indian Railways and India Post are two institutions that have evolved a lot with the demands of time and technology. As per the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both these departments should work closely in a more integrated manner. I want this integration to begin from Uttar Pradesh,” he said during a gathering of officials from Indian Railways and India Post at a programme held at the general post office (GPO) on January 6.
“Over 12 lakh employees of Indian Railways, along with two lakh employees of India Post, can provide us with the world's best system to deliver goods from and to the remotest corners of the country,” he said.
Better integration
Kaushalendra Kumar Sinha, Chief Postmaster General, UP, told the media that the minister had instructed the two departments to work out a method for better integration of services.
UP is home to 53,000 registered SHGs, and this initiative will favour women artisans by delivering their products to corners of the country where they weren’t accessible so far. Apart from this, it will also push the existing delivery system via train.
For long, SHGs were forced to sell their products in local markets for cheap prices and in some cases to startups, which would get products from these SHGs at lower prices and sell them with a sizable profit margin.
“The integration work will benefit the ODOP (scheme). The products are made under the ODOP scheme and will be delivered in a much more effective manner across the country. This will not only benefit the artisans and workers involved in manufacturing of the products but also help to build brand Uttar Pradesh,” said Vivek Kumar Daksh, Postmaster General, HQ region, Lucknow.
Edited by Teja Lele