Dwarf, midget, little people, whatever names they are called by we all have seen them, in the circus disguised as jokers who entertain us and make us laugh by their rib tickling comic acts. We see them enjoy their performance and forget about it. Only few people know or I should say ever bother to see and realize the dark side of their life. The little guys or the extras, as referred in the circus world prove to be a very important part of the comic act, without them the main clown (their boss) cannot carry the act forward.
Thought they earn much praise and applause during the act, but that is only until the spotlight is on, once the show is over all they are left with is tears.
They are often told to clean the floors and wash dishes for their fellow workers and are not even paid extra for it. In a world where cost is reaching sky high, they are only paid 1500-2000 a month and many a times, some portion of that amount gets deducted without any reasonable explanation. Since this is the only source of their income, they tolerate helplessly even if they gather the courage to ask why they are bullied and sometimes even thrashed.
A person can cope with low income and struggle only if he has a small amount of satisfaction in mind that he has a good social connection, he has friends and people to talk to, but people can’t even stand the very idea of giving them this much happiness either. If we ever spot them on the streets, we give them weird looks as if they are some sort of aliens from another planet, kids often bully them just to pass their time, but never try and understand how they feel, in their localities even if they are sitting at a corner minding their own business many youngsters lift them up without warning and toss them from one person to another just to entertain themselves and drop them on the ground. No one tries to be their friends nor they talk to them properly, call them by different names and laugh at them.
From the story mentioned above, it seems they live quite a painful life, right? Believe it or not, they still live with this pain everyday, work in the circus where they are treated like slaves because no one ever offers them a proper job.
Dwarfism has been a subject of misconception not from now, but for many centuries. It is often considered as a disability which it’s not. Many researchers and doctors who have studied about dwarfism, state that It’s not that they can’t walk or perform their daily activity without any external help it’s just that their body size is shorter than any normal person due to the deficiency of growth hormone which can happen to anyone due to lack of nutrition consumption during childhood, stress etc.. It can happen to anyone, every 10 out of 10000 children born in U.S suffer from dwarfism. I will leave the rest of research work for you. If given a chance they can prove that they are no less than us or may be sometimes better than us the best example would be Peter Dinklage the Emmy and Golden Globe award winning actor from the Game of thrones, Chronicles of Narnia prince Caspian, X –men days of the future past and many more films. To your surprise, he is a dwarf too, but today he is an internationally acclaimed actor only because someone believed in him and gave him a chance.
I don’t know if my article is going to bring any difference to people or not, but all I can do is try my best. May be we cannot help them fully but we can at least treat them nice; talk with them nicely and normally like we do with others. Make them feel good about themselves because at the end of the day, they are people like us, they have feelings and they have emotions too. That’s not too much to ask.
