The average household in rural India spends just 43 rupees (77 US cents) per head a day, with their urban equivalents consuming almost double, according to new government data.
The latest study from the National Sample Survey Office, a huge undertaking every two years, shows that average monthly per capita expenditure for a rural household was just 1,281 rupees compared with 2,401 rupees in cities.
The poorest 10 percent in rural areas -- a grouping of about 80 million people -- get by on just 503 rupees on average a month, or just 17 rupees a day, according to preliminary data from the survey.
Despite the low absolute numbers, there were sharp increases in household expenditure in 2011-12 compared with 2009-10, with rural families seemingly benefiting as much as their urban equivalents from rising incomes.
Average per capita spending in rural areas rose 38 percent over the last two years in current prices -- without adjusting for India's high inflation -- and 18 percent on an adjusted basis.
Urban expenditure rose 34 percent over the last two years on an unadjusted basis and 13 percent on an adjusted basis, suggesting city-dwellers had been hit more by inflation which has been running at near double figures.
The federal government, run by the left-leaning Congress party, sees the rural poor as its core voter support and makes much of its commitment to 'inclusive growth' that trickles down to the lowest income groups.
Its flagship programme to help the rural poor is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which guarantees 100 days of employment on public works each year for any household that requests it.
About 70 percent of India's 1.2-billion population live in villages, according to UN data from 2011.
The figures released on Tuesday are provisional but based on surveys conducted on more than 100,000 households spread across the country. Full details will be published in 2013, the ministry of statistics said in a statement.
Measuring poverty in India is difficult and controversial, with an influential government body responsible for policy advice and research recently causing outrage with its attempt to define the poor.
In March, the Planning Commission suggested anyone spending less than 22 rupees (40 US cents) a day in rural India, or 28 rupees in cities, was below the poverty line.
On this basis, it claimed overall poverty levels fell from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 to 29.8 percent in 2009-10, which led campaigners to claim the government was trying to exclude poor people from state benefits.
Under pressure, the deputy chairman of the commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, explained that this limit was for 'absolute poverty' or those at 'rock-bottom, bare subsistence' living.
The World Bank considers that anyone living on less than $1.25 a day is poor.