State Protective Home, Jalandhar (Punjab)

What is the State Protective Home in Punjab?

State Protective Home is a government-run residential institution at Jalandhar, operated by the Department of Social Security and Women & Child Development, Punjab. According to the department's scheme page, the Punjab Government implements the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, and one Protection Home has been set up at Jalandhar for that purpose.

The home exists for a narrow and serious purpose. When a woman is rescued from trafficking or from commercial sexual exploitation, she usually has nowhere safe to go, often no money, no documents, and sometimes no family willing to take her back. A protective home is the place the law sends her to instead of a police lock-up or the street.

The department lists exactly what a resident receives:

• Free boarding; meals provided at state cost.
• Free lodging. A safe, supervised place to live.
• Medical facilities: treatment and health care for residents.
• Vocational training: cutting, tailoring and embroidery, among others.

State Protective Home is therefore not a cash benefit scheme. No money is transferred to a bank account. The benefit is the shelter, the food, the medical care and the skill training, all delivered free. Readers who search for the Punjabi or transliterated name, Rajya Suraksha Ghar or simply "protection home Jalandhar", are looking at this same institution.

Which law does the State Protective Home run under?

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, commonly shortened to ITPA, is the governing law. ITPA is the central statute against trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, and it requires state governments to make arrangements for protective homes where rescued women can be kept, cared for and rehabilitated. Punjab's arrangement under that duty is the Jalandhar facility.

Three features of the ITPA route matter to anyone reading this page:

1. A court, not a clerk, decides placement. Where a woman is rescued during a raid or produced before a magistrate, it is the magistrate who directs where she is to be kept.
2. A protective home must be licensed or run by the state. Private shelters cannot call themselves protective homes under ITPA without state sanction.
3. The purpose written into the law is rehabilitation, not punishment. A rescued woman is treated as a victim, and the offences under ITPA are aimed at traffickers, brothel-keepers and procurers.

This is why the Jalandhar home sits under the Women and Child Development wing of the department rather than under the police.

Who is eligible for the State Protective Home, and who is not?

Women who can be admitted:

• Women rescued from a brothel or from a trafficking situation by the police or by an Anti Human Trafficking Unit in Punjab.
• Women whom a magistrate directs to be kept in protective custody under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
• Women referred by the Department of Social Security and Women & Child Development, a District Programme Officer, a Protection Officer or a Sakhi One Stop Centre after finding that they face danger of exploitation.
• Women who themselves ask the authorities for protective shelter because they are being forced into commercial sexual exploitation.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible:

• Men and boys are not eligible. State Protective Home is a women's institution.
• Girls below 18 are not admitted here. A child rescued from trafficking is produced before the Child Welfare Committee and placed in a children's home registered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. Age is therefore checked at entry.
• Women who simply want free accommodation cannot apply. The home is not a hostel, not a working women's hostel and not a general destitute home. Punjab runs a separate Home for Widows and Destitute at Jalandhar for destitute women.
• Women facing domestic violence or marital abuse are normally routed to a Sakhi One Stop Centre or a Swadhar-type shelter rather than to the ITPA protective home, because their case does not arise under ITPA.
• There is no income limit, no caste condition and no education condition. Eligibility turns entirely on the woman's situation, not on her economic status.

How to apply for admission to the State Protective Home

There is no application form and no online portal for a woman to fill in. Entry is arranged through one of three official routes, and the steps below describe what actually happens.

1. Call a helpline or reach the police. Dial 181 (women's helpline) or 1091 (women's police helpline) for an adult woman, or 1098 (child helpline) if the person at risk is below 18. Report the location, the number of women involved and any threat to life. A call can be made by the woman herself, by a relative, or by any member of the public.
2. Allow the rescue and the police process to happen. The police or the Anti Human Trafficking Unit conducts the rescue, records the case, and arranges a medical examination and an age assessment. The woman is a victim in this process, not an accused.
3. Attend production before the magistrate. The rescued woman is produced before the magistrate, who decides where she will be kept. Where the case falls under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, the magistrate can direct that she be kept in the State Protective Home at Jalandhar.
4. Complete admission at the home. The Superintendent admits her against the court or police order, records her particulars, arranges medical care and enrols her in a vocational training batch such as cutting, tailoring or embroidery.
5. For a direct request without a rescue, approach the District Programme Officer or the District Social Security Officer of your district, or write to the department at itcell-sswcd@punjab.gov.in, explaining the danger. The department then routes the case to the appropriate institution.

Note the direction of travel: the state comes to the woman, not the other way round. A woman in immediate danger should never delay calling 181 or 112 because she does not have papers.

What documents are needed, and what if there are none?

No document is a precondition for rescue or for safety. In practice the file is built by the system:

• The police supply the rescue memo, the FIR copy and the case number.
• The magistrate supplies the order that admits her.
• The government doctor supplies the medical and age assessment report.
• Aadhaar, a birth certificate or a school record help fix identity and age, and later help open a bank account or link her to pensions and rehabilitation schemes, but their absence does not stop admission.

Traffickers very often keep a woman's documents precisely so she cannot leave. The department's own framing, that inmates are provided boarding, lodging, medical facilities and training; reflects a system built for women who arrive with nothing.

How can a family check on a woman placed in the home?

Punjab does not publish an online status tracker for protective home residents, and there is a good reason: publishing the whereabouts of a trafficking victim can put her in danger from the people she was rescued from. Instead:

• Ask the court. The case number from the magistrate's order is the reliable reference point, and the placement order is on that file.
• Contact the District Programme Officer of the district where the case arose. The department lists District Programme Officers, District Social Security Officers and District Child Protection Officers on its contact page.
• Call 181, which can direct a caller to the right officer.
• Write to itcell-sswcd@punjab.gov.in, the department's published email address.

Access to a resident is controlled. A relative who is suspected of involvement in the trafficking will not be given contact, and that restriction is a protection, not an obstruction.

Why are requests for admission refused, and how is that fixed?

• The person is below 18. Fix: the case goes to the Child Welfare Committee and a children's home under the Juvenile Justice Act. Call 1098.
• The case is not an ITPA case. A woman thrown out by her husband, or facing dowry harassment, needs a Sakhi One Stop Centre or a destitute women's home. Fix: ask the District Programme Officer to refer her to the correct institution rather than insisting on the protective home.
• The person is a man or a boy. Fix: the Juvenile Justice route for boys under 18; for adult men, the district administration's shelter arrangements.
• No order accompanies the woman. Fix: the police or the referring officer must complete the production before the magistrate. A private individual cannot simply drop a woman at the gate.
• The woman does not consent. An adult woman cannot be forced into a protective home outside the process laid down in law. Fix: counselling through the One Stop Centre and a proper judicial order.

What are the key dates and helplines?

State Protective Home operates all year. There is no admission season, no last date and no annual application window, because rescues happen whenever they happen. The department's page for the home was last updated on 13 July 2026.

Published helplines of the Punjab Department of Social Security and Women & Child Development:

• 181 — women's helpline
• 1091, women's police helpline
• 1098; child helpline, for anyone below 18
• 14567; elderline, for senior citizens
• 1800-11-1311: CARA help desk (adoption)

How do I complain if something goes wrong?

Grievances about the State Protective Home follow the department's normal chain:

1. Superintendent of the home, for day-to-day issues about food, medical care, training or treatment of residents.
2. District Programme Officer of the district, the field-level supervisory officer for women and child development work.
3. Director / Head of Department, Social Security and Women & Child Development, Punjab: listed on the department's contact page.
4. Punjab State Commission for Women, for a complaint of violation of a woman's rights.
5. Punjab State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, where a person below 18 is involved.
6. Email itcell-sswcd@punjab.gov.in to have a written complaint routed.

Where a resident alleges an offence, a police complaint on 112 or 1091 runs in parallel with the departmental route, and the two do not cancel each other out.

What this page does not claim

Punjab publishes only a short description of the State Protective Home. The department's page does not state the home's sanctioned capacity, its annual budget, the standard length of stay, the exact address of the Jalandhar facility, or a direct telephone number for the institution. Those figures are deliberately left out of this guide rather than guessed at. Anyone who needs them should ask the District Programme Officer, Jalandhar, or write to the department at itcell-sswcd@punjab.gov.in.