Tina Dabi raided a spa centre in Barmer today.
Tina Dabi, one of India's most popular civil services officers, was posted as the district collector of Rajasthan's Barmer last month. Since her new appointment, she has been in action mode - she is sometimes seen sweeping roads as part of a cleanliness campaign initiated by her and sometimes reprimanding doctors who were found to be negligent during hospital inspections. All these actions happened on camera and the videos garnered a lot of traction on social media.
This morning, Ms Dabi raided a spa centre, which was reportedly a front for an alleged sex racket.
What Led To The Raid
A cleaning campaign was underway near the Sadar police station area when all of a sudden Tina Dabi arrived for a surprise inspection. During the inspection, she noticed a spa centre whose doors were locked from inside. She asked the officials to open these doors. But even after knocking several times, no one opened the door.
Suspicious by then, some policemen entered the spa centre through the roof while others broke the door and entered inside. There were many rooms inside the spa centre, in which five girls and two men were found in objectionable conditions, police said. Sadar police station took all of them into custody on suspicion of prostitution and all of them are being questioned.
The raid was captured on camera and videos showed several women, trying to cover their faces, and men inside the alleged spa facility.
'Unethical Practices' In Spa Centres?
There are several spa centres in Barmer city and locals have been complaining to the administration about many of these, alleging the centres are involved in unethical practices. But, today's raid is the first effective action by the police.
As per people in the know of the matter, the people who run these centres get a license issued from the Labor Department. After this, they bring girls from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Nepal and run a prostitution business under the guise of spa centres. The police have taken action against these illegal spa centres several times but due to lack of sustained action, these people get back to these practices again after being released on bail.
Tina Dabi, whose wedding to fellow IAS officer Pradeep Gawande made headlines in 2023, has started an innovative initiative - "Navo Barmer"- meaning new Barmer. Under the initiative, cleanliness campaigns are being run in the city using new-age technology.