Lenskart and EBAI India join forces to formally recognise transsexuals and transgenders with eye for an eye campaign by DDB MudraMax

On April 15, 2014, India’s supreme court granted the country’s transsexual and transgender individuals the right to self-identify their gender. A landmark event that made India the first country in the world to formally recognize transgender and transsexuals as the third gender.

Marking the one-year anniversary of this historic event, Lenskart and the transgender and transsexual community, gathered at Jantar Mantar and along with the support of the community from across the nation, and decided to pledge their eyes, en masse, as a thank you gesture to Hon’ble Mr. Justice A.K. Sikri and Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan who passed the judgment.

The number of pledges that were received has already crossed over 16,000 and the community has vowed to bring this number up to 2lakh, making it the single largest pledge of the country.

Justice Sikri and Justice Radhakrishnan in turn handed over the pledges to Eye Bank of India.

Discussing the concept of the initiative, Aneil Deepak, Head of Ideas, DDB MudraMax said, “Functional advertising doesn’t cut ice with the extremely informative millennial. In today’s world, brands need to show a heart, behave human-ish and offer a point of view. Transgender and transexuals were always around, but we never acknowledged their presence. We couldn’t see. So for Lenskart, we came up with the idea of transgenders pledging their eyes, so those who can’t see, see. With a hope that those who can see, see too.”

Speaking on the event, transgender activist, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi said, “Eyes do not discriminate; the perspective and perception of people do. Eye for an Eye campaign is a symbolic event aimed to reduce the stigma.”

“The government response and action on the SC order has not been very positive and little effort has been made to help the community. We will also use the opportunity to send across a message to the politicians to end the discrimination and take measures to reduce years of backwardness thrust upon us because of the stigma,” she added.

Quoting on Lenskart’s support to the campaign, Peyush Bansal, CEO, Lenskart said, “It’s Lenskart’s vision to spread ability to make every citizen of India see clearily. It just takes a much bigger leap with the ‘Eye for an Eye’ campaign. The supreme court gave the transgenders and transsexuals the much needed respect this time, last year. We are glad to associate with them for this generous gesture. We hope more and more Indians will be inspired to donate their eyes now.”

Quoting on the immense response to the campaign, Dr. Rishi Mohan, Joint Secretary, Eye Bank Association of India (EBAI) and Director, M.M Eyetech Institute said, “Netra Daan is Maha Daan. I am delighted that the community has collectively decided to pledge their eyes for donation after death in this most noble of actions. I wish that other communities too embrace this philosophy in an effort to alleviate curable corneal blindness.”