Razia Noor, Srinagar. The village of Ukhku in Pulwama, south Kashmir, was once known as the Nursery of Terror. There is no violence now, peace prevails here. 12 large scale units are being carried out in the village for making wooden pencils. There are many small units in the house. About two thousand people are getting employment from them. Pencil is the basis of life for most of the four thousand population in Ukhua. The government is officially giving the tag ‘Village with Pencil’ to Ukhuk, which serves a 90 percent slot for the country’s pencil industry. Preparations are underway to declare Ukhua as an industrial area. Now graphite light fitting machines will also be installed here.
Located 26 km from Srinagar, the village of Ukhu is surrounded by poplar trees (diverse poplars). This tree has a special moisture content. This is because the famous companies in India and abroad used to get timber here. In such a situation, the villagers gradually made the tree a tool to change their destiny. With the help of administration and pencil companies, they started making pencil grooves (the upper part of the pencil with graphite lights) in the village. One by one the units continued to increase.
Manjur Ahmed Alai, who founded the first unit, says the cedar tree was first used to make pencils. The country’s pencil growers first obtained it from Germany and China. But when they knew the quality of the cedar tree here, after 1960, the wood was supplied from Ukhua. If the government pays attention to this, these companies started getting 70 percent of the timber from this village. But the villagers started planting poplar after biting the cedar.
Manjur Ahmad says that the issue of why everyone should not make pencils here is before the government. Machines needed. Some companies were taken into confidence. They agreed to help us. But only slot machines are installed. After that people joined in and started moving such small machines home. There are currently 17 registered units in the Pulwama district. Of these, 12 are in Ukhua and five in Lacipora.
Laborers working in a unit of the Uku village. Awareness
Mohammed Anwar Bhat of the village says Nataraja was the first pencil company to start buying raw materials from our village. After this, we started supplying goods to Apsara and Hindustan Pencil Company. Bhat said 30 per cent subsidy would be given to install the machines and the generators would be free to run the units. Most women work in the unit. Four to five hours of work every day. They earn up to six-seven thousand rupees a month.
DC Raghav Langer of Pulwama said the government is working out a framework to declare Ukhua as an industrial area. We are trying to install graphite light machines in units of pencil slots so that not only the slot but also the entire pencil can be produced.
