CSR News: Eyebetes Foundation undertakes awareness initiative around diabetes-led vision impairment at Maha Kumbh 2025

Prayagraj, India: Underscoring their commitment to combating diabetes-led vision impairment, the Eyebetes Foundation, led by renowned Mumbai-based eye surgeon Dr. Nishant Kumar (a three-time Guinness Record holder), has launched a large-scale charitable health initiative at the Maha Kumbh 2025. This transformative mission is designed to provide life-changing eye care and diabetes screenings to tens of thousands of devotees and frontline personnel attending this sacred event.

With a dedicated team of 100 professionals, Eyebetes Foundation aims to offer free vision and diabetes screenings to over 20,000-30,000 pilgrims and over 5,000 uniformed personnel, ensuring that preventable blindness and undiagnosed diabetes do not hinder the lives of those who have embarked on this deeply spiritual journey.

Founded in 2016, Eyebetes Foundation is driven by a mission to combat two of India’s most pressing health concerns – diabetes and preventable blindness. An estimated 21 million Indians suffer from Diabetes-led vision impairment. To date, the foundation has served over 175,000 people through its free screening and awareness programs, including its widely recognized annual initiative during Mumbai’s 10-day Ganpati festival. Now, at the Maha Kumbh, the foundation sees an unparalleled opportunity to extend its reach and serve those who may not otherwise have access to quality healthcare.

The Maha Kumbh is a sacred confluence of faith, tradition, and devotion, drawing millions of seekers in pursuit of spiritual awakening. Eyebetes Foundation recognizes this gathering as an opportunity not just for prayer, but for profound transformation through service. Located at Sector 23, Arail Ghat, the foundation’s medical camp offers essential healthcare services, including free random blood sugar tests, comprehensive vision screening, AI-powered retinal imaging, prescription glasses for uniformed personnel, bifocal glasses, and UV protection sunglasses for frontline officers.

Understanding the critical role of uniformed personnel in ensuring the safety and order of this grand event, Eyebetes Foundation is extending its care beyond pilgrims to the very people who protect them. The foundation is conducting dedicated screenings for diabetes, cholesterol, and vision impairments, ensuring that these frontline officers can continue to serve without health-related hindrances.

Speaking on this initiative, Dr. Nishant Kumar, said “Maha Kumbh is a rare and extraordinary gathering of millions for a spiritual purpose, making it the perfect opportunity to provide life-enhancing medical support. Our mission is simple – to ensure that no one suffers from preventable blindness or undiagnosed diabetes. Through this initiative, we aim to connect healthcare with spirituality, reinforcing the idea that service to humanity is the highest form of devotion.”

By integrating medical care into this momentous spiritual gathering, Eyebetes Foundation aims to touch millions of lives, leaving a lasting impact far beyond the banks of the Sangam. With each screening and every pair of prescription glasses provided, the foundation is turning devotion into action, ensuring that the journey of faith is also one of health and well-being.

Eyebetes – A Movement Against Preventable Blindness & Diabetes

Eyebetes is a movement against Diabetes and Preventable Blindness. Since 2016, the year we started Eyebetes, more than 1,70,000 people have directly benefitted from our charitable work receiving free diabetes and cholesterol blood tests, detailed eye examinations to screen for preventable causes of blindness, free custom-made prescription glasses for near, distance, and both near and distance (bifocal glasses).

More than 1.4 million educational leaflets regarding diabetes and preventable blindness have been distributed by our staff, volunteers, and social work partners during our Eyebetes projects and through door-to-door awareness campaigns.

Our work has highlighted the shockingly high prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes in the poorest of slums and villages and amongst our frontline workers – More than 60% of people participating in our Eyebetes projects are undiagnosed pre-diabetics or diabetics.

70% of people in our projects have either never worn glasses or are wearing the wrong prescription resulting in poor vision with more than 30% having a moderate visual disability due to their refractive error. A simple intervention of prescribing the correct prescription glasses has a transformative effect. As far as ‘bang for buck’ is concerned, prescribing and dispensing prescription glasses, custom-made for the individual has been shown to create the largest impact on quality of life across all indices studied.

Since 2016 our work has been supported and scrutinized by some of the largest and most reputed organisations of the country. We adhere to the strictest standards of corporate governance and reporting and have all the regulatory certifications to conduct our charitable work.

We partner with leading organisations like Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and academics from India and internationally to ensure our work adheres to the gold standards and all the data we collect helps raise the knowledge and evidence base to help shape future public policy.

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