I think it is fair to say that in India the backward cast are still backwardly poor.
And althugh I hate to say this, its only the upper caste to blame.

There are very deliberate attempts by the upperclass to keep the backward classes down, they go as far as practicing untouchabality. This makes reservations even more important, because the uppercaste will not on not give the OBCs their right, but they will even make attempts to take it away.

If the reservations work out as plan, then maybe in few decades from now we will have dalits and bhramins working together and eating together and the words "dalit" and "bhramin" will not mean anyything anymore, and that is when India will truely start progressing.