By Oluwatope Lawanson
The Lagos State Government has taken legislative steps to tackle child exploitation in domestic labour, warning that such exploitation should be treated as domestic violence.
The Executive Secretary, Lagos State Law Reform, Mrs Oluyemisi Ogunlola, made this known at the celebration of 2025 World Day Against Child Labour in Ikeja on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event had the theme: “Ending Child Exploitation and Upholding Dignity: A Case Study of Exploitative Child Domestic Work in Lagos State”.
The event was organised by the Devatop Centre For Africa Development, with support from The Freedom Fund.
The project was also implemented in partnership with CAPRIGHTS-VP, Slum2School, MAEJT, CECE YARA, Street Project Foundation, and 3HF, all working together to prevent, identify, and respond to incidents of child labour in Nigeria.
In a keynote address, Ogunlola said that exploitative child domestic work was domestic violence and must be treated as such by the law and the society.
The executive secretary said that children often recruited from rural communities within and outside Lagos State were often forced into arduous, unsafe and exploitative conditions.
According to her, such children were cut off from education, exposed to physical and sexual violence, and denied the fundamental dignity that every child deserves.
Ogunlola noted that psychological trauma through isolation, neglect and abuse left lifelong emotional scars on such children.
She added that many of them endured injuries or illnesses arising from hazardous tasks.
She said that there had been efforts made by the state government to tackle such.
“The Domestic Staff Service Providers (Registration) Law, 2019, which mandates registration of domestic service providers to regulate recruitment into domestic work, requires employers to engage only registered providers, ensuring that children are not trafficked into domestic work.
“Also, the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) is a dedicated agency to combat all forms of domestic and sexual violence.
“It provides direct legal, medical and psychological support to victims, manages temporary shelters, and runs extensive public awareness campaigns across the state,” she said.
She added that the Lagos State Child Rights Law (2007) prohibited all forms of child exploitation, guaranteed children’s rights to education, protection from abuse, and development.
“These laws reflect Lagos State’s serious intent to eradicate this injustice, but like many societal challenges, implementation gaps remain,” Ogunlola said.
She said that the Domestic Staff Service Providers Law (DSPR) and the DSVA Law must be fully operationalised with inter-agency cooperation.
She said that there was cultural acceptance of child domestic labour as a means of “helping poor families,” but noted that there was weak reporting systems at the community level.
She said that there was fragmented coordination among enforcement agencies and civil society as well as limited rehabilitation infrastructure for rescued children.
“We must strengthen collaboration between relevant government agencies: DSVA, Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Office of the Public Defender, Lagos State Ministry of Justice,” she said.
In his address of welcome, the Head of Resource Mobilisation at Devatop, Mr Bemshima Abako, urged the Federal Government to tackle child labour as a form of domestic violence.
Abako said it was time to broaden public education on domestic violence to include child domestic servitude as a recognised form of abuse deserving urgent intervention.
He said there was need for stronger partnerships between government, non-governmental organisations, faith institutions and the private sector in the prosecution of abusers and traffickers to send a strong signal that exploitation would no longer be tolerated.
Abako added that stakeholders must dismantle the culture of silence surrounding domestic exploitation ‘because childhood must never be sacrificed on the altar of convenience or poverty’. NAN
