India and Denmark: A tale of two postal systems

I was at the General Post Office (GPO) in Bengaluru yesterday to send a few picture postcards. Why I was sending postcards is a story for another blog post! 

There were quite a lot of customers there waiting to get various postal tasks done. Even at my local neighbourhood post office, often there are so many customers that I have to wait for at least 15 to 30 minutes just to reach the counter!

This crowd is quite remarkable considering we live in an era where most people prefer email or messaging apps to the physical letter.

END OF A 400-YEAR-OLD PRACTICE

No more letterboxes in Denmark
 - The Guardian/Liselotte Sabroe/EPA

While standing in that queue at the GPO, I was reminded of Denmark’s state-owned operator, PostNord, abolishing its 400-year-old postal delivery system for letters on 30 December 2025. It is the first and, so far, the only country to do so.

The reason? Obvious. A staggering drop in mail volume made the traditional "snail mail" economically unviable.

THE DIGITAL MAILBOX

I was curious to know how a society functions without a physical letterbox! After all, it wasn’t that no physical letters were being sent. Still, many official documents are sent physically rather than electronically. So, I did some quick research.

Denmark has been planning this transition for a long time, meticulously building a sophisticated digital replacement. Today, every Danish resident has a mandatory "Digital Post" mailbox linked directly to their national digital ID (MitID).

This isn't like our common email systems that are usually cluttered with spam and marketing. It is a secure, legally binding government portal. 

When a hospital, a tax authority, or a local municipality sends a notice to this box, it is legally considered "delivered" the moment it lands in the receiver’s inbox. It places the responsibility on the citizen to check their digital mail, just as we would check our physical gate for a letter. 

There are exceptions; if someone is too old or not electronically savvy, the documents are still physically sent to them. 

Any readers of this blog post from Denmark, or those familiar with this electronic model, may please let us know, in the comment section below, how well the system is working.

THE INDIAN CONTRAST

The General Post Office, Bengaluru.
Wikimedia Commons

Back here in India, the scenario is not very different when it comes to mail volume. Whenever I go to a post office, I notice that most of the people who are in the queue aren’t there waiting to buy inland letters, envelopes, or stamps like me.

India Post has totally repurposed the system, and today it has become a sort of banking behemoth!

Millions here rely on the post office for the Public Provident Fund (PPF), various savings certificates, and senior citizen schemes; all of them offer very good interest rates on deposits.

Also, while "ordinary" mail has died, Speed Post has boomed. That’s the preferred choice now for sending important documents. The article in transit can be tracked online.

(On 1 September 2025, India Post even did away with the nearly 50-year-old system of Registered Post, as most people were using the more efficient Speed Post system.)

THE HANDWRITTEN WORD

This is quite a fascinating study in evolution! While Denmark viewed the physical postal service as unviable and digitised the letterbox, India viewed its network as a vital infrastructure asset and repurposed it for financial inclusion and modern logistics.

This makes me wonder about the future of the handwritten word.

When was the very last time you sat down, wrote a physical letter, went to a post office, stuck a few stamps, and dropped it into that red pillar box?