Background: In spite of increasing demand for blood and blood products, people have inadequate knowledge and interest in donating blood. This study was conducted to assess the understanding and practice of blood donation among people visiting a tertiary care centre in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was done among people registering as outpatient in a tertiary care centre to find their awareness regarding blood donation and to assess practice regarding the same. A total of 436 participants were enrolled using convenience sampling. Details including sociodemographic characteristics, awareness and practice regarding blood donation were collected. Data analysis was done using SPSS 15. Descriptive analysis for categorical data was summarized as frequency and percentage while Chi-square & Fishers’ exact tests were used to find the difference between two categorical/qualitative variables. Results: 65.6% of participants knew their blood group. Majority were aware that diseases like HIV/STD and Hepatitis could be transmitted through blood transfusion while 5.5% of participants believed that it could also transmit Cancer. Further, 15.6% of the respondents had donated before which was significantly higher among males than females (p<0.001). Among those who donated, voluntary donation was more common than replacement donation. Fear of pain/needle (47.8%), ill-health/co-morbidities (41.3%) and lack of opportunity (65.8%) were main causes found for not donating blood. Conclusion:- Awareness related to blood donation among participants was seen to be quite low while practice was comparatively satisfactory. This information could help in implementing suitable donor gathering strategies and increasing awareness and practice among people through proper planning.