Ramakrishna Mission's Narainpur Ashram in Chhattisgarh started its journey in 1985. The goal was to uplift the tribal people of the Abujhmarh forest that has surrounded the Narainpur district. 

Football was added in 1990 the process to encourage and nurture those tribal people so that they can have a healthy life. It was Gautamananda Maharaj whose passion for the game drove Narainpur Mission to introduce football. 

Gautamananda Maharaj was a craftsman who introduced the game also in Alo, Arunachal Pradesh. He was the secretary of Alo Ramkrishna Mission and following his inspiration Alo Ramkrishna Mission's boys played in the final of Subrata Cup twice. 

Following encouragement from the Mission’s present secretary Swami Vyaptananda Maharaj, the Narainpur Mission has a residential football academy already approved by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). 

Along with its main stadium with an Astroturf ground and two other natural training grounds, the Mission has all modern infrastructure where along with football a few other sports disciplines are practiced. The stadium has a capacity of nearly 10 thousand spectators and installation work of the flood lights are going on.

Out of 2700 students, studying in the Narainpur Mission School around 300 boys play football. Under the tutelage of Ranjan Chowdhury, the former coach of TFA and East Bengal juniors, the boys are gradually moving up towards the main-stream Indian football. 

However, the Mission's journey from bringing the tribal children to the Mission's school and then nurturing them before placing the passionate and potential kids in the football has not been easy. 

The tribal community people who live in Abujhmarh forest has been in dire financial distress for long time. RKM Narainpur has been endeavouring for the overall development of this extremely poor community and the Mission wanted to start their exploration with education. 

The kids are brought to the Mission School and get admitted to one-standard and then retained for the next 12 years before completing their primary study. Football has added the avenues for those tribal boys in the journey to settle their career.  

But initially it was difficult for the Mission to convince and bring the tribal kids to the RKM School. Abujhmarh forest is also a place where Maoist has great influence on the tribal people. So, in the beginning it became tough for the Mission to convince them as well as the tribal people. The misunderstanding even created chaos as Mission's tractors were burnt a couple o years ago. 

But at the same time, Mission gets a lot of co-operation from the people of the forest now a days.   

Narainpur Ramkrishna Mission already took part in the third division of the I-League last season after becoming the state league champion. They will again participate in the third-division I-league this season. 

RKM Narainpur added another feather in their kitty this year by organising the under-20 national football championship at its campus. 

It started on 12th April and 32 state teams across the country will finally vie for the title in a 40-day battle on the Mission’s Fifa-approved Astroturf. 

Principal of the RKM School and in-charge of all the sports discplines said, “We are thankful to the AIFF for allowing us to conduct such a big national-level competition for the first time.” 

The academy coach as well as the Mission is happy that the Chhattisgarh state team that will start their campaign in the under-20 national championship in May will consist of 11 promising footballers from RKM Academy.

Significantly, Mission's entry into the mainstream of Indian football is unlikely to slump by organizing the under-20 National Championship. 

RKM Academy is in the process of making a tie-up with a English Premier League club academy within the next couple of years for the development of its boys. 

Krishnamritananda Maharaj divulged that Abhishek Kunjam's playing for the East Bengal reserve team this season is giving them the boost to be in the process of producing more quality footballers in the future. One of their tribal boys has already represented the country at the school level. 

It is also believed that a few more premier clubs from Kolkata and other states are asking RKM Academy to send quality footballers for the next season.

After completing the ongoing under-20 national championship successfully, RKM Narainpur has plans to organize a knock-out competition consisting of the junior teams from all the ISL clubs.