NEW DELHI: The Congress party is readying plans to promise legislation-backed reservation for backward castes in private sector jobs and quotas for them in private school admissions in its 2014 elections pitch as part of an ambitious affirmative action agenda aimed at wresting back some of the support among this voter group it has lost in recent years.The Grand Old Party 's election manifesto will include reservation of jobs for scheduled castes and tribes in private companies having investments worth Rs 100 crore or employing 1,000 people by way of a legislation, reservation in private schools for class 1 admissions, free post-matriculate education and a Rs 25,000 voucher for every graduate, two Congress functionaries involved in its preparation have told ET. The manifesto, the first in recent years to have the imprint ofCongress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi who has in recent speeches made no secret of his rights-based thinking, is in final stages of preparations and due to be unveiled next month.Both he and his mother, Congress President Sonia Gandhi , have been the lynchpins of the rights-based legislations of the United Progressive Alliance , which has seen the government promulgate legislations such as the Right to Information, Right to Education and the right to food via the Food Security Act.Last week, Rahul provided another glimpse into his populist credentials when he openly backed the demand for raising the cap on subsidised gas cylinders to 12 from nine now. The ambitious affirmative action plan targeted at SCs/STs, a traditional pocket borough of Congress where it has hemorrhaged support in the past two decades, has been finalised after extensive consultations with stakeholders in each state, civil society activists and its legislators and parliamentarians.Congress, which goes into the general elections facing a major antiincumbency wave, is desperate to woo its traditional vote base of dalits and scheduled tribes that has been weaned away by parties such as BSP and BJP. In the recent assembly elections, Congress has won only six of the 91 reserved seats for scheduled castes, down from 38 seats in 2008.The party hopes the slew of promises in education, employment and quality of life for these groups will help it win back some of their support. A major cornerstone of this approach would be reservation in private sector jobs, a move that was proposed in the 2004 and 2009 manifestos but could not be pushed by UPA.The proposal now being considered is to bring a legislation to make it mandatory for all private companies with Rs 100 crore of investment or employing 1,000 people or more to hire a certain proportion of workforce — the exact percentage has not been decided yet — from the SC/ST section.Explaining the reason for the investment and employee cut-off, a senior Congress functionary said: "If we say reservation in private sector jobs it will never see the light of day because even a small embroidery firm with five employees would be asked to implement it. It is not feasible." "(The) Private sector fears the government would sit on their heads and implement it. Instead, the government can sit across the table and work out arrangements that are not oppressive to the private sector," said the leader.The party is also planning to give a voucher of Rs 25,000 to every SC/ST graduate to access skill development training for employment. Another key proposal, Congress leaders said, was linked to education. "Across board, the basic sentiment of scheduled castes and tribes is that they need to have access to high-quality education. Most of the SC/ ST children study in government schools and complain of poor-quality education. This is the basic need we will address in the manifesto," said another senior Congress functionary familiar with the drafting of the manifesto.The manifesto is also likely to promise access to quality Englishmedium education in residential school settings, such as Navodaya schools. The party would promise one Navodaya school — one each for girl students and boy students — in each block. There are 6,000 blocks in India.At present, there exists a general 25 per cent reservation for economically backward classes for admissions into class 1 in private educational institutions. The party plans to promise population proportionate reservation in these institutions, which would mean that if an area has 12 per cent SC population, 12 per cent of the 25 per cent seats earmarked for economically backward classes will be filled up by SC students.Post-matriculate education would be free for all SC/ST students. Congress is also proposing reservations in all private educational institutions offering higher, technical and professional education. The manifesto could also hold out a promise to improve quality of life by following its rights-based approach. It will promise three rights — right to homestead (independent, pucca house), right to clean drinking water and right to individual low-cost sanitation.