An army of sites are now online to help those looking for blood when they need it the most. And for most of them, it is a labour of love.

For instance, Bloodbankonline.com: Anand Murugan and Vinod Ram gave up five-figure salaries at the Tata Group's Housing Development Corporation to set up the site.

Ram explains, "It all started when a colleague who needed blood actually had to go through the Group's blood group list and travel a few hours to get in touch with me. Sitting across her, I realised the gravity of the situation and her inability to find blood quickly in this city."

Indianblooddonors.com is a directory of blood donors. Khushroo and Fermin Poacha, who set up the site, have a similar story to tell: "The person contracted to help us furnish our house couldn't meet me because one of his workers had an accident and needed three units of O negative blood which none of the blood banks had. I donated a unit, but the man died three days later, prompting me to believe that he could have been saved had he received the blood in time."

Incidents like these now touch his life everyday. "There was a doctor registered at our site who mailed us that his category as a 'critical care consultant' had not been listed. Since I didn't know what a critical care consultant was, I visited his hospital. The doctor led me through the ICU, pointed to a 70-year-old man, and said 'This man needed eight units of blood and all donors have come from your site.' When he introduced me to the man's son and his wife, they fell at my feet with gratitude. His old wife blessed me saying, 'Beta, yehi tumhara asli bank balance hai.' That was when I knew my site was a hit. Now, whenever I am plagued with doubts, financial or otherwise, I simply recall that incident."

Indianblooddonors was launched in Nagpur in March 2000. It has 500 donors registered across 54 Indian cities. The effort has been a financial drain, admits Khushroo Poacha, who has spent Rs 100,000 developing it. "I work with the Railways and my wife also comes from a middle-class family. We have both invested our savings in this site. Nonetheless, we are glad we have been successful."

One extremely useful feature of Indianblooddonors is the 'Nearest Donor' section. On the basis of the location typed in by the user, the site lists addresses of the nearest donors. If the donor has donated blood within three months, a stamp indicates that on the list.

Poacha says, "We do not screen blood donors when they register on our site. Whenever somebody requires blood he contacts a donor through the site. The person donates blood in a blood bank, which gives him a tested blood replacement."

Bloodgivers.com is another directory of 500 blood donors. Set up in May 2000, it covers over 60 cities in different countries. After working as the Head of Finance at Petronet India Limited, Siddharth Kapur decided to set up the site because, "It was a good cause to champion and my being Web savvy helped."

Once a query for a blood type is submitted to the site, it automatically forwards the request to donors within that city. The donors are kept anonymous so that they are under no pressure to respond.

Kapur claims, "In the last two-and-a-half months, over 200 people have searched the site and more than half have found donors."

Bloodbankonline follows a similar method of operation. "We list only office details of the person so that he or she is not disturbed at odd hours. Besides, the site lists co-ordinators or volunteers who can get in touch with donors at odd hours in case of an emergency. Blood donation in India is not a planned activity and happens only in an emergency. This site aims to make it a planned activity like it is in several countries abroad," says Vinod Ram, who is also helping hospitals and blood banks plan and schedule their own blood camps.

He says, "We believe that through the Internet we can get younger blood into the donor's pool instead of the same people donating blood repeatedly, which may not be healthy."

Bloodonline has tied up with the National Plasma Fractionation Centre to provide information about transfusion medicine. Well-known transfusion specialists have been approached to answer queries. It is also in the process of tying up with blood bank associations and integrating all Indian blood banks online. "The site was conceived to attack two distinct problems: A lack of safe blood donors, and safe blood management practices," says Vinod Ram.

Today, each site has a small and growing database. Kapur plans to spread site registrations to more countries. He hopes to tie up with a larger portal at a later date. "I want to start a 24-hour hotline service so that in case of an emergency people can be contacted immediately."

Poacha plans to appoint co-ordinators in each city. They would help locate a donor from their own lists as the last resort if a donor is not found in the database. However, he is cynical about the lip service offered by hospitals. "They all agree it is a good service but, when it comes to helping us in any way, they are more concerned about how they can benefit from it."

But Kapur is happy with the donors. "There is a young model, a thalassemia patient, who needs regular transfusion of blood and uses our site very often to locate donors. It is very commendable when donors donate blood at odd hours, covering large distances at their own cost!"

Khushroo agrees: "Shahrukh Cassad donated blood when he was called to do so despite the fact that he was in the midst of a birthday party. There are others who have donated blood in the middle of the night and wanted to remain anonymous."

For most owners, these sites are not commercial ventures. Kapur and his wife spend all their free time maintaining the site. "Blood is not a commodity. I do not want to sell my site to somebody. The idea is to help people receive and donate blood without any charge," he says.

Khushroo Poacha too has received many offers to sell his site but refuses to do so. "I have a certain attachment to it now. Besides, if I do so, there would be no difference between me and a professional blood donor who sells his blood for money!"