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 yesterday.

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 and the Talkam. In a keynote address, Ogunlola said 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.