Punjab Runs 158 Welfare Homes and Shelters. Here Is the List.
Shelter homes, women protection centres, old age homes and rehab centres, counted on the government's own portal. Most people never hear of them.
Punjab's government runs shelter homes, women protection centres, old age homes, children's homes and rehabilitation centres. It publishes how many of each.
We counted them on the department's own portal on 11 August 2026. There are 158 institutions across 17 types.
Almost nobody knows the list exists, which is a problem, because these are the services people look for in the worst week of their lives.
What Punjab lists, by type
| Type of institution | Number |
|---|---|
| Sanatzar, vocational and craft centres | 39 |
| Shelter homes | 36 |
| Socio-economic rehabilitation centres | 21 |
| Children homes | 18 |
| Women protection centres | 12 |
| Old age homes | 7 |
| Dar-ul-Falah | 6 |
| Qasar-e-Behbood | 5 |
| Skill development centres for persons with disabilities | 3 |
| Kashana | 3 |
| Chaman, Salai Markaz, Training Institute, Gehwara | 1 each |
| Half way home, drug rehabilitation centre, beggars home | 1 each |
| Violence against women centre | 1 |
The total of 158 is our arithmetic on the published counts, not a figure the portal displays.
Some categories have exactly one for the whole province
Punjab has roughly 130 million people. Against that, read the bottom of that table again.
One drug rehabilitation centre. One violence against women centre. One half way home. One training institute for persons with disabilities.
We are reporting the counts as published and leaving the conclusion to you. Two honest caveats belong with them.
The portal counts what it describes as enabled institutions under this department. Other departments, district administrations and non-government organisations run their own facilities, so this is not a census of every shelter in Punjab. And a single large facility is not the same as a single small one, because the count says nothing about capacity.
Neither caveat changes the shape of the picture at the bottom of the list.
What the portal actually does
The site is dpmis.punjab.gov.pk, run by Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal. It is more than a directory.
- Services for persons with disabilities, including online registration
- Certificate verification, which matters because a disability certificate is the gateway to most benefits
- Himmat Card verification
- An employer dashboard, tied to disabled employment quotas
- Concessions, and district rehabilitation and training committees
- NGO and Bait-ul-Maal sections
If you are seeking disability registration in Punjab, this is where it starts, not at a district office you have to find by asking around.
On the Himmat Card, we are not printing a number
The Himmat Card is Punjab's stipend for people with disabilities, and its verification runs through this same portal.
You will find a specific quarterly amount quoted confidently across a lot of websites. We are not repeating it.
Every source we found carrying that figure was a scheme aggregator rather than a government page, and the portal itself did not display it where we looked. A wrong benefit amount sends a disabled applicant to a bank expecting money that may not be there, and that is a worse outcome than saying we do not know.
Check the amount through the portal or the helpline before planning around it.
The other half of the system
Cash support in Punjab runs through a different body, the Punjab Social Protection Authority, and it is worth knowing both exist.
The authority operates a 24 hour helpline on 1221 for eligibility questions, complaint registration and cash-out agent details. That is the number to call if you do not know which scheme you qualify for.
Its Aghosh programme pays support tied to mother and child medical check-ups. Payment runs through JazzCash after biometric verification, and the authority states plainly that there should be no fee and no deduction. If an agent takes a cut, that is not a service charge, it is theft, and the same pattern we documented in illegal deductions from BISP payments.
The authority also began a door to door survey, the PSER, in April 2025, which is how households are assessed for these programmes.
If you need one of these now
- If you are in immediate danger, call 15 first. Paperwork comes second.
- For eligibility across Punjab welfare schemes, call 1221, which runs day and night.
- For disability registration or certificate verification, start at dpmis.punjab.gov.pk.
- For a shelter or protection centre, ask the helpline or the district social welfare office for the nearest one, since addresses are not on the public view of the portal.
- Never pay anyone to register you for a government welfare scheme. Registration is free.
Other numbers we have read off institutions' own pages, rather than copied from lists, are collected in government helplines checked at source.
Why this was hard to find
The information is public. It is on a government domain. It has been there for a while.
It is also on a portal whose name gives no clue what it does, at an address nobody would guess, with no obvious route to it from a search for "shelter home near me". That is the same pattern we keep hitting: the service exists, works, and is unreachable by the people who need it.
We found the same thing across roughly forty domains in testing Pakistani government websites, and again this week in what the Sehat Card actually covers, where the address in circulation is dead and the working one is somewhere else entirely.
Questions readers are asking
How many shelter homes does Punjab have?
The Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal portal listed 36 shelter homes when we checked on 11 August 2026, alongside 12 women protection centres and 3 Kashana facilities.
Where do I register a disability in Punjab?
Through dpmis.punjab.gov.pk, which handles online registration, certificate verification and Himmat Card verification.
What is the Punjab welfare helpline?
1221, run by the Punjab Social Protection Authority, 24 hours, for eligibility, complaints and cash-out agent details.
How much does the Himmat Card pay?
We are not quoting a figure. The amounts circulating online come from scheme aggregator sites rather than government pages, and the portal did not display one where we looked. Confirm through DPMIS or the helpline.
Are there old age homes run by the Punjab government?
Yes, seven were listed on the portal when we checked, along with six Dar-ul-Falah and five Qasar-e-Behbood facilities.
Does the government charge to register for welfare schemes?
No. Registration is free, and the Social Protection Authority states its Aghosh payments should reach recipients with no fee or deduction.
Is this every shelter in Punjab?
No. These are the institutions this department lists as enabled. Other departments, districts and NGOs run their own facilities.
About the author
Author
Fajr Riaz is a well-talented author at Pakera.pk with expertise in creative content creation/writing and storytelling. Fajr's strength lies in creating engaging articles, detailed guides, and straight narratives that connect with readers and give meaningful insights. With her accurate attention to detail and passion for writing, Fajr has established herself as a pivotal pillar at Pakera and is invaluable.
