8 Women With Disabilities Who Made Headlines In 2025
From winning world cups to campaigning for social justice, these 8
women with disabilities redefined accessibility as a fundamental right.
Vishal Sharma, Dec 22, 2025
2025 was a year when the country finally recognised the need to hear the
stories of people with disabilities and saw some significant changes in
the narratives
on disability. The country seemed to recognise the urgent need for
accessibility
and the fact that immediate action is the need of the hour. However,
needless to say a lot is yet to be done by both the government and
society as a whole
for true inclusion and accessibility.
The year 2025 turned out to be one when women with disabilities not just
made big achievements but broke many glass ceilings. They made news
headlines
in sports, innovation, and activism. From winning inaugural world cups
to breaking records in able-bodied categories, the achievements of our
female stars
once again proved the fact that disability lies in the inaccessible
infrastructure, in the binary systems and discriminatory attitudes and
not the people
themselves.
This list celebrates 8 trailblazers of India who with their resilience
and spirit, have not only realised their own dreams and the dreams of a
community
long relegated to the margins of our country, but also sought a just and
accessible living environment that would be built for every Indian citizen.
1. Sheetal Devi (Archer)
Source: Olympics
At the 2025 World Para Archery Championships, Sheetal Devi, 18, secured
individual gold, but her glass ceiling moment was when she was selected
for the
able-bodied
national team
for the Asia Cup in Jeddah.
Born without arms, the archer began shooting using her legs and
shoulders. By competing with 60 able-bodied sportspersons in the
compound women category
and securing the qualification, Sheetal Devi not only made a mark in the
history of the country’s sports but also effectively dismantled the
binary frameworks
of the sporting world, which historically have prioritised able-bodied
people and reduced disabled sports to secluded para sports.
At the 2025 World Para Archery Championships, Sheetal Devi, 18, secured
individual gold, but her glass ceiling moment was when she was selected
for the
able-bodied
national team
for the Asia Cup in Jeddah.
‘Hume kisi ko jawab nahi dena… humara arrow jawab dega (We don’t have to
explain, our arrow will do that)’ – her coach’s remarks became a motto
for the
young archer making her sporting journey in the world.
2. Nidhi Goyal (Comedian & Disability Rights Activist)
Photo: UN Women/Susan Markisz
Nidhi Goyal is a pioneer female disabled
comedian
and a disability rights activist. Nidhi Goyal introduced her
‘Feminist-Disabled’ framework through the International Purple Fest and
her leadership at
Rising Flame in 2025.
She has shown the world that comedy can be an effective tool against
ableist and gendered norms, can help us to reach out to people and build
bridges that
empower the people who have long neglected. By tapping into the gap
between art and policies as a public speaker and comedian, Nidhi has
opened up important
conversations about consent, desire and leadership of
disabled women.
3. Dr. Anjlee Agarwal (Policy Architect)
Dr. Anjlee’s website
With her leadership at ‘Sugamya Yatra‘, Dr Anjlee Agarwal made efforts
to incorporate disability inclusion in India’s urban transformation, by
demanding
that ‘Universal Design’ be the baseline for India’s rapidly growing cities.
As a member of the NITI Aayog CSO Committee, her work has focused on the
disability laws’ ‘implementation gap‘ – a space where progressive legal
protections
often fail on the ground in making any significant improvements in
disabled people’s lives.
As a member of the NITI Aayog CSO Committee, her work has focused on the
disability laws’ ‘implementation gap‘ – a space where progressive legal
protections
often fail on the ground in making any significant improvements in
disabled people’s lives. Through her advocacy, she has been trying to
ensure that new
infrastructure projects, from metro stations to government buildings,
should be built aiming at providing dignity to all citizens
4. Virali Modi (Public Speaker and Model)
Source: YourStory.com
Virali Modi, a renowned motivational speaker, is making history by using
her visibility to bring down the ‘aesthetic ableism‘ of urban cultural
spaces
in India. By her regular capturing of daily navigation of accessibility
in a country rampant with new infra projects, she exposes the flawed
foundations
of modern development which totally ignores the basic needs of millions
of citizens. In one of her reels, she put it effectively: ‘we don’t need
your sympathy,
we need ramps, accessible washrooms, and footpaths. Disability is not
the problem,
inaccessibility
is.‘
Her activism on Instagram and social media this year promoted the right
to the city – to exist, to access the essentials – as a non-negotiable
political
right.
5. Dr Rajalakshmi S.J. (Dentist and Pageant Winner)
Source: X
Dr Rajalakshmi S J is a dentist, educator, and wheelchair pageant
winner. Her NGO, SJ Foundation works for the visibility and
representation of persons
with disabilities. Rajalakshmi personally brought down the ableism
prevalent in medical fields that long barred disabled bodies from
high-precision professions
like surgery. Her work in 2025 has continued on her established path of
disability advocacy and seeking further steps towards real empowerment.
6. Indian Women’s Blind Cricket Team (Cricketers)
Source: Female Cricket
The Indian Women’s Blind Cricket Team became the first world champions
in November 2025 by winning the inaugural
T20 World Cup.
Their journey began with tough training days. Led by captain Deepika TC,
India defeated Nepal by seven wickets in the final played in the Sri
Lankan capital Colombo. This massive feat by disabled cricketers in an
environment that is not accessible at all, is hoped to give visibility
and the much-needed infrastructure to sportspersons with disabilities in
the country.
The
champion squad
included 3 categories of players, which were: B1 Category: Simu Das, P.
Karuna Kumari, Anu Kumari, Jamuna Rani Tudu, Kavya V. B2 Category:
Anekha Devi,
Basanti Hansdah, Simranjeet Kour, Sunita Sarathe, Parbati Marndi. B3
Category: Deepika T C (Captain), Ganga S Kadam (Vice Captain), Phula
Soren, Kavya
N R, Sushma Patel, Durga Yevle.
7. Sminu Jindal (Industrialist)
Source: Conscious Carma
Sminu Jindal is an Indian industrialist and an economic architect of
inclusion. She is the Founder-Chairperson of Svayam, an initiative for
accessibility
rights. In 2025, Sminu Jindal helped mobilise the
National Summit on Accessibility,
where she successfully shifted the discourse from “social welfare” to an
economic imperative, identifying accessibility as a trillion-dollar
growth driver for India’s future development goals.
8. Preethi Pal (Athlete)
Source: Olympics
Preethi Pal hails from a farming community in a village in Uttar
Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar. Now a star Olympian, Preethi, as a child, faced
immense challenges
since she could
barely walk.
She received the honour of becoming India’s flagbearer for the World
Para Athletics Championships in 2025. A Paris Paralympic double bronze
medallist, Pal faced and overcame barriers in her journey from battling
cerebral palsy to becoming a sports icon for women in the country.
A Paris Paralympic double bronze medallist, Pal faced and overcame
barriers in her journey from battling cerebral palsy to becoming a
sports icon for women
in the country.
With the outgoing year, these barrier-breaking stories dismantled the
global frameworks that are ableist and exclusive in their very nature
and called
out India’s flawed development model. These pioneering women, with their
resilience, have given encouragement to other women and made efforts to
provide
platforms to millions in the country. As is often said, their
achievement came not because of the system, but despite the system. They
are finally being
heard and receiving the visibility that they deserve. The one thing
common in all these stories is that accessibility is not a privilege,
nor a request
but a democratic and constitutional right which every single Indian
citizen deserves and is a prerequisite for any modern and equitable society.
The spirit we need to adhere to for the approaching year should be: the
right to move, the right to equal participation and above all, the right
of accessibility,
which cannot be conditional and negotiable for any citizen, no matter
where they stand in the ableist social hierarchy.
https://feminisminindia.com/2025/12/22/8-women-with-disabilities-who-made-headlines-in-2025/#google_vignette
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Regards
Sameer Latey
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