India’s Tonda Community Builds Technical Skills

On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we’re highlighting just some of our work with Indigenous communities. Through our training and learning programs, the Internet Society is empowering these communities with the skills to build a connected, resilient and inclusive future for themselves.

Last year, our Training, Education and Learning Team partnered with Krivin Academy to deliver community-centered connectivity training in Coimbatore, India. During the program, the team visited the Tonda indigenous community in the Nilgiri Hills, where we met young people eager to use the Internet to strengthen education, tourism, digital payments and communication while still preserving their culture. Two young community members were inspired to complete Internet Society training courses as a result of that visit.

Sustainable Connectivity Needs Local Skills

Fast forward to 2026 and 27 learners from the community completed one of our Fundamentals of Designing and Deploying Computer Networks (DDCN) training programs. They also appreciated the Introduction to Online Trust and Safety component, which is now a feature embedded in all our face-to-face training sessions. During our visit, we also learned that previous connectivity initiatives had struggled because there was no local capacity to maintain the infrastructure. This reaffirmed a key lesson: sustainable connectivity requires skilled local people, not just equipment.