Parliament Question: Welfare measures for postal staff

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF POSTS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3055 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19TH MARCH, 2026 WELFARE MEASURES FOR POSTAL STAFF 3055 SHRI ASHOKRAO SHANKARRAO CHAVAN: DR. PARMAR JASHVANTSINH SALAMSINH: SHRI NARAYANA KORAGAPPA: SHRI UJJWAL DEORAO NIKAM: SHRI MAYANKKUMAR NAYAK: SHRI AMAR PAL MAURYA: SHRI MITHLESH KUMAR: DR. ANIL SUKHDEORAO BONDE: SHRI RYAGA KRISHNAIAH: Will the Minister of Communications be pleased to state: (a) the measures taken during 2024-25 to improve the working conditions and welfare of Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS); (b) how many postal employees have been successfully on boarded onto the Dak Karmayogi and iGOT portals for digital capacity building; (c) whether there exists a significant gap between sanctioned and working strength of postal employees and if so, the steps being taken to fill the vacancies; and (d) the details of most recent tranche of Rozgar Mela organised by the Department to issue appointments for new candidates? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR) (a) The measures taken by the Department during 2024-25 to improve the working conditions and welfare of Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) include, extension of facilities of compassionate engagement for the dependents of GDS, incapacitated in performing duties, in compliance with the provisions of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PwBD) Act, increase in Department’s grants to the Circle Welfare Fund by two times, increase in amount of financial grants and assistance from the Circle Welfare fund by 10% and provision for financial assistance of Rs.10,000/- for the purchase of Tablet/Mobile at simple rate of interest of 5% per annum. (b) At present 4.55 lakh employees, including GDS, are on boarded onto the Dak Karmayogi portal and 4.58 lakh employees, including GDS, on the Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) Karmayogi platform for digital capacity building. (c) There is a gap in the sanctioned and working strength of postal employees. Vacancies arising due to retirement, promotion and other administrative reasons are filled up on a regular basis, in 1accordance with the Recruitment Rules and extant instructions of the Government of India from time to time. (d) The latest round of the Job Fair (Rozgar Mela) in which Department of Posts participated was carried out on 24.10.2025 by the Government in which 8,295 new employees were handed over the offers of appointment. ***** 2