Formerly, people had to pursue certain livelihoods according to their caste. So someone might be expected to serve as a noble or king, or a priest, or a merchant, or a seller of cooking oil, or a shoe repairman, or a tailor, or a farmer, or a street sweeper, depending on one’s caste.
In modern times, the government follows an egalitarian ethic, so everyone is officially free to follow any job, but the old ideas still persist, so the Indian government provides assistant to people from lower castes.