Laxmi Yadav: A 20-Year-Old Woman Trapped In A Six-Year-Old’s Body
Laxmi Yadav is a 20-year-old woman who lives her life inside the body of a 6-year-old due to a rare hormone disorder, which means she is unable to age.
Yadav is just 3ft 3in tall and only weighs three stone, and because of her disorder she hasn’t grown since she was five and only wears clothes that would fit six-year-olds.
Laxi, who lives near Delhi, India’s capital, has never even reached puberty, and it is very unlikely that she ever will. Yadav told The Mirror, “I’ve been bullied all my adult life for being small. I rarely go out as I’m scared I will be harmed. I fear I’ll be sexually attacked … Being so small, I’d be an easy target. So I never go anywhere alone.”
The most tragic aspect of Yadav’s illness is that she could have received a treatment to cure her of her illness when she was 16 that would only have cost just under $500.
However, her 58-year-old father, Bahadur, who works as a security guard, only earns 8,000 rupees a month, which comes to $130, and couldn’t afford it.
Dr. Ritesh Gupta, who works at Fortis Hospital, New Delhi, stated, “Available treatments are much more effective when started at an early stage. Laxmi will remain as she is unless there is a proper investigation done on her and she’s treated accordingly.”
Yadav, who also has an older brother and a younger sister, 22-year-old Azad and Suman respectively, stated that she was lucky in school. She remarked, “I was lucky to have school friends who never bullied me and often protected me. But when I stepped away from my family or circle of friends people were always nasty. I hate meeting new people as it hurts getting stared at and bullied every time. I’ve now learnt to ignore them and sometimes I’ll be rude and tell them what I think.”
However, Yadav still doesn’t trust any man and would rather stay single than pursue a marriage, stating, “I’m frightened of putting my future into the hands of a bad person. I don’t want anyone in my life who might mistreat me then disown me when he wishes. I can’t have kids anyway, so what’s the point?”
Yasav recently acquired a job as a sales assistant, which pays her 5,000 rupee, ($82) a month.
