For many (the 98% who are not the correct caste), caste is a sin that they cannot be freed of.
This has been well being entrenched in place for over 20-25 years. It can be found at any large tech company not just in SV, but beyond too.
Children are destined to be treated as less as if they had control of which families they were born into.
[1] In the State of Tamil Nadu, the caste-based reservation stands at 69 percent and applies to about 87 percent of the population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_in_India
I think HN has articles about people changing their names.
Also, people who are anti-caste are quite open about it. The rest probably not so much, or will say it's not so bad, or it's been mis-understood, or that the root of it was better than the practice, or the practice of it now is much better than the root was.
It's difficult to reconcile and self-examine the blurring of socio/cultural/political/religious division among a billion people to keep them focused on pinning each other down, instead of building each other up.
Caste also works in the shadows, like every downvote I'm grateful to pay for with not having that kind of karma.
Nothing personal, I just think every human life is equal in potential and things like caste (like education) limit access to opportunity to uplift your own life and the generations after you.