Smriti Irani’s PF certificate when in McDonald’s to be auctioned

The Provident Fund certificate relating to her job at the fast food joint will be auctioned soon and proceeds from the sale will go to a cluster of women artisans

Smriti Irani's PF certificate when in McDonald's to be auctioned

Pic courtesy/Smriti Irani's Twitter

In the 1990s, just after she was rejected in an interview for the job of an air hostess, for lacking "good personality", union cabinet minister Smriti Irani in the landed a job at the Bandra outlet of the fast-food giant McDonald’s. The Provident Fund certificate relating to her job at the fast food joint will be auctioned soon and proceeds from the sale will go to a cluster of women artisans.

This auction will be conducted by The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL), an industry body. The senior officials of the union ministry of textiles stated, the process to identify the group of women artisans to whom the proceeds will be given. It all started during a conversation between Smriti Irani and officials of TEXPROCIL about her time as an employee of McDonald’s. Smriti Irani took the first offer that came her way and has previously stated ended up clearing tables and swept floors with a monthly salary of Rs 1,800.

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Since then, her Provident Fund earnings have remained untouched. A Mumbai-based TEXPROCIL member stated, "Once we told her that we found the account under her maiden name, we discussed how it could be leveraged to make the lives of women, struggling in the same manner that she did, better." This conversation lead to the decision to auction the certificate and hand over the proceeds to the ministry. According to Hindustan Times, a senior ministry official stated, "We will look at a cluster of women whose work needs to find takers and should be highlighted."

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