Motivation’. That is the word displayed on the backrest flap of a wheelchair that navigates its way into a gym in Chennai, set up specifically for women with disabilities. Sitting on it is A Arunmozhi, who has 34 gold medals to her name — 30 of which she won in javelin, shot put, discus, and powerlifting in state-level tournaments and four for powerlifting in national-level tournaments.
Arunmozhi has since aimed bigger. “I want to participate next in the 2026 Asian Games, followed by the 2027 World Athletics Championship, and then the 2028 Paralympic,” she says. With that unshakable resolve, she moves from one equipment to another, in her wheelchair, training with focus.
In between her sets, she describes it as a luxury to be able to move around a gym in her wheelchair. “For over seven years, I trained in regular gyms where they never allowed wheelchairs. I would crawl from one machine to another, ask someone to help me reach the weights that would be stacked up on the top shelves of a rack, and would sometimes ask for help to get me to sit on some equipment,” she shares.
But above all, she would train with the whole room watching her, and that, she says, was a challenge beyond the physical.
To Arunmozhi, and many other women with disabilities, this new gym with adaptive equipment has come as a relief. Located inside a residential area in Nungambakkam, the gym is on the first floor of Better World Shelter run by Dorcas Research Centre for Education, Art, and Culture, along with the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). It has been operational since March 1, 2025.
M Nathiya, a powerlifting champion who has won three medals — two bronze and one silver — in national-level tournaments since 2023, says that this gym was established after residents of the shelter put forth a request. “We told our Aiswarya madam the difficulties we were facing while working out. Then, she made multiple requests to the government and got this gym for us,” she says.
Aiswarya Rajyalaxmi Rao, managing trustee of Docras Research Centre for Education, Art, and Culture, says, “As a woman with disabilities myself, I understood their difficulty. In November 2023, we submitted a letter to Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Development of Tamil Nadu, asking to install a gym in our shelter. He forwarded our request and eventually, the gym was sanctioned.”
According to the facility’s sports coordinator Matilda Fonceca, only 10 women, who are residing in the shelter, have been using the gym regularly, even though it is free of cost and open to non-residents. “We are very much open to non-resident women with disabilities. But our focus, right now, is on getting financial support to get a trainer or a coach. Only volunteers are training our women now. Once we get someone, we will be actively encouraging more women with disabilities to use the facility,” Aiswarya adds.
Ration shop to gym
Better World Shelter, for women with disabilities, was set up in 2016 after a mutual Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the GCC and Docras Research Centre for Education, Art, and Culture. For over five years, the shelter operated in a dilapidated school building that stood in the same place as the shelter. While the ground floor was used by the shelter’s residents, the first floor had the government’s ration shop.
“It was an awkward situation where people would walk in and out of our shelter to access the ration shop. In January 2024, they moved the shop elsewhere. After that the old school building was demolished and rebuilt with a lift and a gym on the first floor,” Aiswarya says. While the construction work was going on, the shelter was shifted temporarily to Royapettah, she adds.
Adaptive machines
Two of the machines at this gym have been particularly adapted to make them more suitable for women with disabilities. The first — a wheelchair training roller or a wheelchair treadmill. The machine lets those training in it, to push their wheelchairs in place, like a treadmill for chairs. It helps them build speed, strength, and endurance and is a good cardiovascular exercise, the sports coordinator says.
The second, is an all-in-one machine used for upper body training. The machine’s height has been reduced to ease their training, Arunmozhi says. “When we have to do ‘lat pull-down’ exercise, normal machines would have the handle raised so high. In this machine, the height has been reduced so we can pull it down ourselves.”
While the gym, on one hand, encourages women with disabilities to take an active step towards being strong, and fit, it also can be instrumental for them to consider sports as a vocation. Aiswarya says, “Now we have women training and participating in tournaments. In the coming years, maybe they will become experienced trainers or coaches for other aspirants who would participate in state, national, and international tournaments. So sports can become their livelihood and empower them. That is how I see it.”