I was acquainted with an Indian fellow who said he was one of the "untouchable" class, and being Catholic, he was raised in southern India. He grew up and became a Catholic Priest which brought him out of poverty and to the US to preach. He told me if he preached in India he would surely be killed. I'm not sure if this is because he is Catholic or because he's an untouchable or a little of both.
Not quite true. I was a student in a convent school and that was way back in 1950’s. All our teachers were either nuns or priests. We did not care what religion they were or preaching, they were just great teachers from my point of view.
I grew up in a city of 250,000 population, and during college years had hundreds of friends. None of us were aware of or cared what caste we belonged to. Only time caste came into any relevance was when looking for a marriage partner. Arranged marriage was the norm but not forced marriage, in my caste. Either the prospective groom or bride had the final veto power.
So the “untouchable” issue may have some relevance in villages, but not so much in bigger cities. One funny anecdote is from my favorite city of Mumbai was so cosmopolitan, when I arrived for graduate studies at Iowa City, all the movies running there for next 6 months or so I had already seen in Mumbai! The movies were obviously released in Mumbai lot sooner than Iowa City.