According to http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/map/map/, I can use either m[k] or m.at(k) to access the value of a key k in a map 
map::operator[] is not deprecated.
I will guess that you are attempting to call the operator in a context where derivMap is const. map::operator[] does not have a const overload, because it can modify the map by inserting an element when one matching the key isn't present. map::at() on the other hand, does have a const overload because it is designed to throw when an element is not found.
void foo(std::map<int, int>& m)
{
  int n = m[42]; // OK
}
void bar(const std::map<int, int>& m)
{
  int n = m[42]; // ERROR
}