The Valmiki of India

The Valmiki of India, numbering approximately 99,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Kupia-speaking tribal community of eastern India, concentrated in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. They maintain a distinct ethnolinguistic identity shaped by agriculture, local village traditions, and interaction with neighboring tribal peoples. They mostly adhere to Folk Hinduism and Kupia is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Valmiki

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: South Asian Peoples
Country: India
People Cluster: South Asian Tribal
Primary Language(s): Kupia (key)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Hinduism
Population: 99,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG041822
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Valmiki of India

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Folk Hinduism
Religious Affiliation: Hinduism

95%
%
Folk Hinduism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Kupia
Language Family: Indo-European

74%
%
Kupia Speakers

Media Resources in Kupia:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Kupia:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2018 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc.✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Kupia bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Valmiki are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Valmiki:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Valmiki of India

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
read1 Chronicles 16:26

Pray that those among them who are lost and seeking after worthless idols will have the opportunity to hear and respond to the good news, seeing that Jesus is better than any idol.

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.
readIsaiah 55:6

Pray that the lost will seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
readIsaiah 49:13

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ and suffer for their faith, they will sing for joy and be glad in their hearts because the Lord has compassion on them.

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
read2 Corinthians 1:5

When any who might believe suffer for the sake of the gospel, ask God to deepen their understanding of His grace so that they may share it freely with those who have not received it.

Valmiki (ST) Across Countries (ROP3 - 113841) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

Scroll to Top