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.
The Himmat Card pays Rs 10,500 a quarter
The Himmat Card is Punjab's stipend for people with disabilities, and its verification runs through this same portal.
The Social Welfare Department now publishes the amount: Rs 10,500 a quarter. It is on the Himmat Card page at swd.punjab.gov.pk/himmatcard and in the DPMIS FAQ. An older department poster still shows Rs 7,500, so go by the newer pages.
There is no separate application. People who meet the rules are shortlisted from DPMIS records, and the status check needs the disabled person's own CNIC. The full rules and steps are in our Himmat Card guide.
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?
Rs 10,500 a quarter, according to the Social Welfare Department's Himmat Card page and the DPMIS FAQ, read on 28 September 2026. An older poster shows Rs 7,500. Confirm your own payment through DPMIS or the helpline 1312.
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
Public Services and Education Journalist
Fajr Riaz is a journalist and content writer at Pakistan Era, based in Lahore. She covers the questions people meet in everyday life in Pakistan: how a public service works, what a change in the rules means, and where to find a reliable answer.
