What happens when a post office gets a Gen Z makeover? Head to IIT Delhi

Kumar first visited the post office about six months ago. “It is always a great place to visit,” he said. “I never feel like coming here is a hassle.”

India Post’s first Gen Z-themed campus post office. (Express Photo: Reva Thakkar)

Inside the makeover

One of the walls and the ceiling are panelled in red; the other walls stand in a complementary white.

Behind the red-and-white desk, a doodle mural covers a white wall: painted human figures, cats, a pizza, a burger, and, placed between sketches of the India Gate and the Qutb Minar, the Mona Lisa. The names of the IIT Delhi students who painted it are written in red paint in the corner of the wall.

There is also a framed picture showing the post office as it used to look next to how it looks now.

A weighing machine for parcels sits next to a transparent display case containing post office merchandise such as bottles and fridge magnets.

One-year-and-nine-months-old Akshita had found her own amusement in pressing its buttons while her father, Manoranjan Baditya, filled out forms to enrol her in the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.

His wife, Hemangi, and 4-year-old son Rudraj were sitting on the chairs. “When we come here, we can bring our kids without any tension; there is no rok-tok (no nagging)”, Hemangi said. “Our kids can be who they are, and no one complains.”

“Yaha aakar mind fresh ho jata hai (our minds are refreshed after we come here),” she added.

The post office offers financial and insurance services alongside the usual mail and postal services, as well as Aadhaar facilities. It also has the India Post Payments Bank and a philately counter with a variety of heritage stamps.

There are two staff behind the red-and-white desk: Pooja Yadav, the postal assistant, and Adarsh Yadav, an MTS (multi-tasking staff) worker.

The post office is open from 9 am to 7 pm from Monday to Saturday. On Sunday, it shuts at 4 pm.

Another visitor, Menka Singh, 28, a PhD student in neuroscience at IIT, recalled her experience at post offices elsewhere in the city: long queues, unpredictable closures, and long waiting times. Here, she added, the staff are friendly enough that “I can just text them to check if they are open.”

“It does not seem bureaucratic at all. I just go and get my work done. I can pay via UPI; there’s no compulsion for cash,” she added.

That accessibility is by design, says Postmaster Manender Singh Rawat, 38.

Why a ‘Gen Z post office’?

The idea took shape in July last year, developed over months of meetings with students and faculty before implementation began in September and wrapped by October-November.

“It was basically an initiative for Gen Z,” Rawat explained — a response to a generation that associated post offices only with letters, unaware of the savings schemes, parcel services, and financial products on offer.

The revamped space was formally inaugurated as India Post’s first Gen Z-themed campus post office, part of a nationwide plan to revamp 46 post offices located within educational campuses by December 15, 2025.

The initiative was Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s vision of turning post offices into youth-centric spaces, featuring WiFi-enabled zones, QR-based parcel booking, student-friendly Speed Post discounts, and wall art credited to the IIT Fine Arts Society.

“Union Minister Scindia visited the IIT Delhi post office in January 2026, and his signature is now part of the office’s own small history,” said Rawat.

Footfall climbs

The numbers back up the shift in perception: footfall has climbed to 40-50 customers a day. Students use the post office for parcel services when they graduate and ship their belongings home, while PhD scholars use it to send Speed Post applications for academic positions.

“Most students’ lectures end around 5 pm, so we decided to extend the hours to make the post office accessible to them,” added Rawat.

Akanksha Gayakwad, 21, a first-year MSc chemistry student living at the Nalanda Hostel, said the post office being close to her hostel benefits her. “I never have to wait too long to get my deliveries done, and they explain if there’s something I’m having trouble with,” she said.

But it wasn’t just students that benefitted from this.

Swapna Mishra, 56, an IIT Delhi alumna and the wife of a Textile Technology faculty member, said the change has added a personal touch. She has used the office for a savings account, an RD, an MIS, and now is opening an account for her domestic help.

She remembered the post office as always helpful, but “bahut sarkari tareeke se chalte tha (it used to run in a very bureaucratic way)”.

Returning after almost a month, she pointed out that Rawat still remembered who she was. “There’s a personal touch here; the staff makes sure that people feel connected.”