The mail woman

The 31-year-old “lady postman” who walks for hours every day in the Gole Market area delivering letters and packages,enters the private space,and lives of those who greet her. And she does it effortlessly.

“It becomes a problem sometimes though,” she says. “People keep talking,forgetting that I have letters to deliver.”

People seem to know her here. An anxious mother worries about her son’s results as Rajvati stops by. But it wasn’t always like this in the neighbourhood. They raised eyebrows in surprise,even stared at her. “Earlier,they found it strange when I started delivering letters. Now,it only happens when someone new comes to the neighbourhood,” she says.

Rajvati is among the few postwomen in the city. Ashish Kumar,director of GPO,says the postal services provided equal opportunities to men and women but issues surface when it comes to safety of women. So,if a woman in the department asks for an internal transfer,her request is almost always accepted. However,there are around 11 postwomen in the city.

At the Gole Market post office,there are at least five postwomen. While Rajvati walks along the shops in the bustling market,Kamlesh cycles away to Palika Bazaaar every morning. Indrawati Deshwal,60,who works at the Gole Dak Khana as a stamp vendor,was one of the only two postwomen in the city in the 1980s. She would take an early-morning train from Rohtak,change into her uniform,and walk through the alleys,confronting sneers.

Back in those days,Deshwal challenged notions. Twenty-five years later,Rajvati is trying to mark her space too. Three years ago,Rajvati was a homemaker. She was 28,had been married for seven years and was the mother of two children. Then,to help her husband,who works with the Delhi Police,with the household finances,she decided to give the examination for a job at India Post.

After a long bus ride from Aaya Nagar,an urban village near Gurgaon,Rajvati begins her day at the Speed Post office in Gole Market,near Gol Dak Khana opposite Gurdwara Bangla Sahib,where she sits at her designated number 34,sorting and arranging letters for more than an hour. After sorting out the post for over four hours,she changes into her blue India Post uniform and steps out on her rounds.