Kanhaiya Kumari, 19, raised the 5,000 rupees (about 89 US dollars) needed to pay his mother’s bail money in India; Kumari has worked night and day in a garment factory to earn the bail money. Kumari’s 48-year-old mother was five months pregnant with her son when she was arrested in connected with the murder of a neighbor.
She was sentenced to life in prison. She denied the charges and in 1994 she was granted bail pending her appeal. Her husband refused to post the bail money, which is the reason her son took it upon himself to earn the bail money.
Both mother and son remained in Nari Niketan prison in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, until Kanhaiya was sent to a juvenile remand home at the age of 6. He was released last year after spending seven years separated from his mother and immediately set about getting a job that would pay for his mother’s bail.
About 19 years after his mother was first jailed, Kanhaiya paid the bail money at Allahbad High Court and secured her release. “I worked very, very hard to get the money for the release of my mother,” Kumari said. “I’m very happy now.”