ActionAid International - Combined Harare Residents’ Association - A Study on the impact of “Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order” Table 5: Proportions who were engaged informal and formal sectors Strata Informal sector Formal sector Female headed households 91% 9% Child headed households 100% 0% Households hosting orphans 92% 8% Households hosting chronically ill 91% 9% members Households hosting 91% 9% mentally/physically challenged persons 3.3 Impact of Operation at household level As already highlighted, the impact of the operation has cut across a wide spectrum of households and age groups. However, the impact is generally the same - negative. The extent to which a households or communities were affected has not been quantified. Scant, inconsistent and at times conflicting information is available on this issue. Therefore as one of the key findings of the survey, it was to explore and detail what it is that households lost during the exercise. The areas investigated include; shelter, source of income, education for children, loss of property (apart from shelter), deterioration of health, food security, household safety and security, disruption of family unit, women status and dignity, increased vulnerability for children, orphans and women as well as the psychological (trauma) effect on the family. These are discussed below: 3.3.1 Shelter A majority (76%) of respondents reported that they had lost shelter. Loss of shelter was two fold 1) a tenant being evicted as a result of demolitions, 2) a land lord losing a section of his home as a result of the demolitions. It becomes apparent that the increased demand for accommodation net effect is the escalation in the cost of accommodation and over crowding in the “legitimate” structures. It can be argued that this will form the foundation for increased incidences of communicable diseases and the destruction of the social fabric as some enumerators reported cases where women and men shared a room. From the analysis no differences were noted for the other vulnerable categories apart from the households headed by women and children in terms of impact. 3.3.2 Source of income Overall, 79% of interviewed households reported that they had lost their sources of income. The most probable source of income includes those already highlighted above on the primary sources of income. This figure is similar to the 73% that had lost sources of income (livelihoods) as a direct result of the Operation. The increase may be attributable to multiple sources of income that households are engaged in to ameliorate vulnerability. Strikingly this generally affected all households in the same proportion. 3.3.3 Education for children The welfare of children especially in terms of their ability to attend school is a basic fundamental right, was affected by the operation. School drop out was reported to be 22%. However, 45% of households interviewed reported that they were at a precarious position in funding and accessing schools for their children, currently and in future. This may be a clear indication on the future prospects of school enrolment for children in the near future. Reasons attributable to this may be due to the destruction of livelihoods and 9