Anees –
1. When I start with the migration point it is only because in this particular incident the rapists (and the victim) happened to be migrants. I felt there was a clear class angle and in a place like Delhi urban poor overwhelmingly tend to be migrants. If this particular rape case had taken place in the domestic space I may have given that primacy. But if my piece appears to single out migrants as more culpable it is totally unintentional.
2. “…because it identifies women’s empowerment as a cause of, rather than an antidote to rape”. I completely agree with the point that empowerment is the solution to rape. But I never advocated that women should not be empowered. My point is that the pace of women’s urban work place participation has been rapid especially post economic liberalization. In my perception the urban male worker is threatened/confused by this visibility and resorts to violence to reinforce old power structures. So the cause is not women’s empowerment, it is men’s inability to deal with it. And the solution is undoubtedly more empowerment not less.

Anindita –

1. No doubt rapes were always committed. But popular media seems to suggest that the incidents of rape are increasing at an alarming rate. If that is indeed the case I was trying to pin point what the underlying causes are – especially in big cities like Delhi.
2. And again I am not blaming the woman for finding a job in historically male dominated industries. I am blaming the man for treating the work place as his exclusive preserve and not being able to deal with the increased presence of the opposite sex in an economic structure that now values gender neutral traits like labour productivity and efficiency. I am not placing the moral culpability for rape on the victim for ‘being out there’. Quite the opposite.
3. On capital punishment – though I stand by it, it was not the focal point of the piece. It is a different debate altogether, let’s leave it for another day.

Amrita –
Agreed that women contribute hugely to the rural economy. My idea was not to belittle it. I just employed a writing style where I put myself in the shoes of the perpetrators and tried to offer their thought process in committing rape. For cooking, child rearing and agricultural labour women are either not paid or paid less compared to men due to several age old biases. This makes men believe that women’s labour is inferior and unworthy and is nothing more than petty domestic chores. Not a point of view that I agree with, but I was just trying to show a glimpse of prevailing popular mentality.

You might also want to justify your advocacy of death penalty for rapists.

http://sourcanvas.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-mayans-got-something-right-after-all.html

This article made so much sense.
Instead of the society blaming others , our family should look at the way boys are brought up.

Beautiful article…..