India’s Naga Sadhus have earned global acclaim with the ‘Naga Saint Eye Test’—a unique diabetes and blindness awareness campaign that bagged the Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025. The initiative, conducted during Maha Kumbh 2025 at Prayagraj, was led by Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. (GCPL) and Eyebetes Foundation.
With diabetes affecting nearly 100 million Indians and being a major cause of preventable blindness, the campaign transformed Naga Sadhus into living eye charts by painting bold Hindi letters on their backs in Devanagari script. Those unable to read them were offered free eye screenings. The campaign screened over 400,000 individuals and reached 600 million people globally.
Swati Bhattacharya of Godrej Creative Lab called it “an idea that travelled from the world’s biggest spiritual festival to the world’s biggest creative festival.” Dr. Nishant Kumar, founder of Eyebetes, hailed it as a culturally resonant innovation. In Guwahati, market experts view this recognition as a reminder of the potential for culturally rooted campaigns to elevate India’s global image. Healthcare entrepreneurs and advertising firms in the region are now exploring similar awareness models that blend tradition with innovation.