Every year, urgent blood requests circulate on WhatsApp faster than blood banks can actually verify who is eligible, available, and nearby. If you have ever wanted to help but weren't sure whether you qualify, here is what to check before you show up.
The basic eligibility checklist
These are the widely used general criteria in India, based on National Blood Transfusion Council guidance. Always confirm the exact requirements with the blood bank or hospital on the day, since a doctor's final check matters more than any checklist.
- Age: generally 18 to 65 years.
- Weight: at least 45 kg.
- Haemoglobin: at least 12.5 g/dL, checked with a quick finger-prick test before you donate.
- General health: no fever, cold or infection in the days before donating, and no major surgery in the preceding months.
- Gap between donations: at least 90 days between two whole-blood donations, to let your body fully replenish.
Situations that usually mean waiting, not disqualification
A lot of common questions ("Can I donate if I just recovered from dengue?" "What about six months after a tattoo?") have real answers, but they depend on specifics a form can't capture. If you are unsure, the safest move is to ask the blood bank directly rather than assume either way — both wrongly skipping a donation you were eligible for, and donating when you shouldn't have, are avoidable with one phone call.
Why donors don't show up even when they want to
The eligibility rules are only half the problem. The other half is discovery: a hospital or a family member posts an urgent request, but it reaches people who are the wrong blood group, too far away, or who donated three weeks ago and don't realise they're not eligible yet. That is exactly the gap Bharat Alumni's blood donor network is built to close — search by blood group and city, and see who is currently marked available.
How to register as a donor properly
- Sign up and select your blood group on your donor profile — this is separate from your regular alumni profile, so you control it independently.
- Add your city, so nearby requests reach you first.
- Mark yourself unavailable whenever you are outside your 90-day window, recovering, or simply not in a position to donate — an honest "unavailable" is more useful to everyone than an available profile nobody can rely on.
- Respond only when you are actually eligible. Your contact details are never shared with a requester until you choose to respond, so there's no pressure to react to every request you see.
One donation, several lives
A single whole-blood donation is typically separated into components — red cells, platelets and plasma — so it can help more than one patient. If you've been putting off registering because you weren't sure you qualified, the checklist above covers most of the ground; the rest is one conversation with a blood bank away. Register as a donor and you could be the reason a request gets answered in minutes instead of hours.