Government has raised the minimum age of enrolment in the army to 17-and-a-half-year to fall in conformity with a new UN Protocol, which had labelled jawans of 16 years as child soldiers.
Disclosing this in the Rajya Sabha in a written reply, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said raising of the age for recruitment would be effective from next month.
However, he added there would be no change in the upper age limit for recruitment which would stand at 25 years.
Over the past few years, army has been recruiting soldiers at the age of 16 in order to keep the youthful profile of the services.
The step comes in the wake of recommendations made by a Committee headed by Defence Secretary Ajay Vikram Singh, which has proposed to lower the age of battalion commanders to have fit officers leading troops in rugged areas.
According to an international armed forces survey, India has officers commanding battalions who are the oldest. Countries like Israel, UK and even Pakistan have officers commanding the battalions at a "more youthful" age of 40.