This 14-year-old Bhopal boy is gifting freedom to poor prisoners
At just 14, this Bhopal boy is rich. He has over Rs. 86,000 in his bank account, which he has earned through numerous cash prizes and award money. However, instead of stacking his money, Ayush Kishore has invested it somewhere else: he pays for release of those prisoners, who've finished their terms, but aren't able to walk out because of pending fines. Incredible!
The class-X student has been doing this since two years, and shows resolve to continue the benevolent act. This year on August 15, he plans to gift freedom to 14 such prisoners, of which 12 are in Indore jail and two in Bhopal, by donating Rs 27,850 towards their fines. All are murder convicts, but Kishore doesn't seem to bother about these.
When he ensured release of four inmates on Republic Day this year, the happiness they and their families felt was enough for Kishore. "Their joy served as inspiration for me. I decided to help more," said the teenager, who had won National Child Award for exceptional achievement in academics in 2016. He received the award from the then President Pranab Mukherjee.
His award-winning spree doesn't end here. He has won the Grand Championship Trophy in International Level Mental Arithmetic Competition held in Cameron Highland, Malaysia. World Record University (UK) has awarded a gold medal and an Honorary Doctorate Degree to him. He also holds a national record in the Limca Book of Records in mathematics. He has received several scholarships from his school too.
All his award money, including the Rs 10,000 cash-prize with the President's Award and Rs. 28,000 from his school, are spent on this noble initiative. Kishore shared he always pondered over how he'd spend his money, and got the right push in October'16, when the infamous Bhopal jailbreak happened. 8 SIMI activists had broken out of jail, killing a constable during their escape.
That constable's daughter was to get married a few days later and Kishore wanted to help the family. Just as he was gearing up to understand the process, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced the state government would foot all expenses for the wedding. Kishore now needed another avenue for his philanthropic motives. He started asking his mother, Vinita Malviya, Assistant IG, Planning Branch.
She "suggested that I donate for prisoners who have completed their punishment but are serving additional jail term because they are unable to pay the fine." That was the start. Since then Kishore has been a savior to many prisoners, for instance 46-year-old Srijan Singh, a murder convict who was abandoned by his family. Srijan's good behavior ensured his release before his term ended.
However, Srijan had Rs. 5,000 as pending fine, which halted his release. He got depressed, only to be helped by Kishore. Srijan was among the three who got released on Republic Day'18. Kishore also visited Bhopal Jail that day with 15kg of sweets to celebrate.
